


Keith goes to Hot Topic

by Nicomoru



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Also Keith has eaten questionable things, And Lance can knit, Crack fic that turned into an actual fic, Cuddling, Fluff, Ice Skating, Keith goes to the Hot topic, Lance works at Hot topic™, M/M, McDonald's, Slow Burn, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, enjoy???, finished after a year without updating can I get a hoy yah, most likely, some stuff happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-01-07 04:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12225381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicomoru/pseuds/Nicomoru
Summary: Keith needs new jeans, but there's a cute cashier and he's not okay.





	1. New Jeans

**Author's Note:**

> God, I can't write so I'm sorry for this. I was originally planning to write a Shlav crack fic but then I came up with the idea for this based on a conversation I had with another person a while ago. So here is my garbage that was supposed to be a crack fic but somehow turned into almost an actual fic.

Keith needed new jeans. He tripped while cryptid hunting in the forest near his house and fell down a hill and into a creek. Which is extremely unfair, he might add because he was on a really promising trail and he knew he might of found something that night. Nevertheless after three hours of cleaning and trying to sew them, the effort was fruitless as Keith could not sew and Shiro was useless. Not to mention dead to him, watching as Keith came back home soaking wet and in a pair of tattered jean and laughing his ass off for ten minutes afterwards.

 

_ “Whatever, Buzz Lightyear,”  _ Keith had murmured to himself,  _ “We’ll see who’s laughing when I show everyone the pictures from your emo phase.” _

 

_ “At least I’m not still going through my emo phase,”  _ Shiro said, overhearing the last part.

 

_ I’m not going through an emo phase,  _ Keith thought as he entered the Hot Topic. 

 

Two things ran through Keith’s mind as he entered. One, that this was actually Hot Topic,  _ and not that one store that used to be a Hot Topic and is now a weird weeaboo store, because he’s been tricked by that store like twice now an-  _ that train of thought abruptly ended as soon as he laid eyes on the cashier. 

 

_ Oh Shit, cute boy, A B O R T  _

 

He didn’t look like your average Hot Topic Employee™. He was way too bright and looked like he actually went in the sun. He was wearing a shark t-shirt and smiling at something at his phone. He looked up at Keith’s movement and smiled at him, to which Keith immediately went to the back of the store, willing his heart to stop beating out of his chest. He hoped his face wasn’t as red as it felt.

 

Normally he would just leave and come back another time, but he needed these jeans. His only other pair were his gray sweatpants, which he was wearing right now, and he’d rather not walk around everywhere with his pants that he slept in. Also all the other stores he can get jeans at were closed, except for the department stores, which he usually doesn’t go to because the cashiers normally start conversations there and Keith’s been having a bad day so he’d rather  **n o t** . He also has a coupon, which of course is a plus.

 

But one quick glance back at this guy and it tells him that he’s probably one of those “social people,” which are the kind that Keith is bad at interacting with. He literally only has three friends, one of which being his brother, and the other two were originally Shiro’s friends. He has always wondered why it’s so hard for him to make friends…

 

He’ll get back to that later, right now his mission is to get jeans, survive a most likely awkward cash register experience, get back home, and eat ice cream while crying. Just like a normal Saturday night.

 

He picks out two jeans from the pile and heads over to the register. He also picks up new eyeliner for Shiro because he was complaining about running out (he should be complaining about his tragic haircut tho). There’s one person in front of him and she seemed to be having a very animated talk with The Cute Boy™. They’re talking about some tv show he doesn’t watch and how a new season was apparently coming out soon.

 

He should be annoyed at the length of the conversation, but they are the last two people in the store and Keith’s been staring at the tall boy’s face for five minutes and he’s still been to preoccupied to notice. As the girl starts to pick up her stuff to get ready to leave, Keith start to panic.

 

_ Ohhhh shit,  _ Keith thinks,  _ What will I do if he tries to talk to me? I look like a mess, I hope he doesn’t talk to me, wait what if he does talk to me? What do I do??? He’s too cute, God save me.  _

 

As soon as the boy turns to Keith, all his thoughts suddenly freeze. The boy then speaks,

 

“If you’re done glaring at me, Mr. Grumpy Pants, I can ring up your items now.”

 

Keith blinks and stops putting his items on the counter. “What?”

 

“I’m sorry, would you prefer edgelord?” He said with a smirk which did something to Keith’s heart.

 

Confused now though, he wondered if he had done something wrong, “...edgelord?”

 

“You’re buying two pairs of black jeans and eyeliner ten minutes before Hot Topic closes, I’m pretty sure that makes you an edgelord,” he said as he started ringing up the items.

 

“Firstly, the eyeliner is not mine, secondly, you’re the one who works at Hot Topic, doesn’t that make you the edgelord?” Keith mentioned, still confused at why the cute boy was arguing with him.

 

“Hey, no. I’m only working here for a paycheck and because of a dare I agreed to six months ago. Therefore, you sir, are more of an edgelord than me. And you’re total is $50.45.” The boy said as he started putting away the items.

 

“Jesus, coupon,” Keith said as he took out his phone and gave it to the boy to scan (their hands brushed and Keith may have or may have not blushed), “And you just admitted that you are at least a bit of an edgelord.”

 

“Everyone’s a bit of an edgelord. If you’re denying that, you’re lying to yourself. It’s just that some people are more edgy than others and they need to be called out for it.” He scanned the coupon and told Keith the new price, which made his wallet much happier. 

 

“You know what, I prefer Mr. Grumpy Pants now.” Keith said as he paid for his items and got his bag.

 

“Good then, it’s cute. Suits you.” He said as he typed something in Keith’s phone and gave it back.

 

Keith blushed all the way to the tips of his ears… Did he just hear that right? “What?”

 

“Anyway’s I’m gonna start to close down for tonight,” he said with a slight blush on his face, and a wide grin (which did not help Keith at all he might add), “You should get going.”

 

He walked around the counter as Keith was still gaping at him. He winked and Keith made a noise that he did not know he could make and he started to walk out. As he left he waved and the boy mouthed  _ text me  _ and waved back. If Keith could get any redder as he walked out he’s sure he would. 

 

_ Text me???  _ He thought while walking back to his car,  _ How would I even do that when I don’t have hi- _

 

His thoughts stopped abruptly as he opened his phone and the new contact page was pulled up.

 

_ Lance <333 _

 

Needless to say Keith was freaking out the entire car ride home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uuhhhh thanks


	2. Texting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith can't deal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Hi, since so many of you liked the first chapter for some reason, I'm gonna make this a multi-chapter fic. I don't know when this is gonna update, since i still can't write, but most likely on weekends because of school and all that. Anyways, enjoy my crappy writing! 
> 
> Also for the texting bits Keith's is bold and Lance's is italics.

“SHIRO, HOLY FUCK,” Keith said as he kicked open the door to their apartment. 

 

“Wuz hapin,” Shiro said as he woke up from his nap on the couch, jostling the tuxedo cat settled on his stomach. The TV was playing Bubble Guppies, proving that Shiro actually was an actual six year old.

 

“BOY!!! CUTE!!! NUMBER!!! HELP!!!” Keith yelled at Shiro, pushing his phone into his face. It had Lance’s contact still there, haunting Keith’s very soul at the thought of texting someone

 

Shiro stared at the contact, “...how is it that it took you three years to become friends with Matt, but you got a boy’s phone in the 30 minutes you went to hot topic?”

 

“Matt said that aliens weren’t real so naturally I avoided him,” Keith admitted.

 

“...that bitch”

 

“Yeah, I know, now help,” Keith said, still vaguely panicking but that almost being undermined by the annoyance that comes with remembering Matt telling him aliens weren’t real. Sure, that was five years ago, but do you think 13 year old Keith was above kicking Matt in the shins that day and running back to the safety of his room? Because if you do, you’re lying to yourself. Of course he’s gotten better at controlling his emotions by now, but still.

 

“Well,” Shiro said, actually waking up a bit, “How did you get this number in the first place?”

 

“So I was buying my jeans, and I got you some eyeliner by the way, here,” Keith said as he rummaged through his bag and threw the eyeliner at Shiro as he muttered a small thanks, “and I was the last person in the store, and then the cashier called me an edgelord, which sparked this whole conversation on who’s the actual edgelord. Wait getting off topic, heh topic, like hot topic- ANYWAYS, I gave him my phone for the coupon and then he put in his number and closed the store, so what do I do???”

 

Shiro blinked as he took all the information in, “... i- is that allowed?”

 

“Who cares if it’s allowed, Shiro, a gosh darn friggin boy gave me his phone number! We have more important issues!!!”

 

“Watch your language, first of all, and secondly, just text him, it’ll get it off your chest faster,” Shiro said as he got up to go eat a hot pocket.

 

“We both know it’s not that simple!” Keith exclaimed as Shiro heats up the hot pocket, “Do I say ‘Hello this is Keith’ or is that too formal? Is ‘Hi it’s Keith’ to informal? Can I just send a picture of Red? Is that how you make people like you???” Keith sat on the couch while he was already combing through his phone for pictures of his cat. He was lucky the only things in his photo gallery was his cat and hippos. Not his hippos though… (he wishes they were).

 

“Keith, showing people cats is not going to make people is not going to make them like you, I thought you learned that last time,” Shiro said, referring to the time he took Keith to a party where he just stood in a corner and glared at everyone, and whenever someone would come up to him he would pull out a picture of Red, keeping the same facial expression until they came up with some awkward excuse to get away. Keith didn’t need them anyways. Anyone who doesn’t fully appreciate his cat is dead to him.

 

“Shiro, I refuse to believe that showing people pictures of Red does not aid in befriending them, and you’re seriously not helping me.” He complained while Shiro pulled out his hot pocket with his prosthetic hand, because that shit is hot as hell and that is one of the perks of losing an arm, as he always joked about.

 

“If it’s bothering you so much, let me text him first,” Shiro said as he put down his hot pocket and snatched Keith’s phone.

 

“NO!” screeched Keith as he tried to reach for his phone, but Shiro held him down. 

 

“Keith do you want to text him?” Shiro said as he held the phone an arms length away from Keith.

 

“Yes, but you can’t text him for me! Give the phone back, please!” Keith begged, because goddammit he felt compelled to this boy for some strange reason. He’s never really hit it off with a stranger that quickly before. He had a full blown conversation with him for peats sake! It’s hard enough to keep up a conversation with people he knows. By now they’ve gotten used to it, Keith just feels like it’s one of his barriers.  But somehow that bo- _Lance_ broke though it… Plus it does help that he called Keith cute soooo…

 

“Okay, you can have the phone back, but,” Shiro said putting the phone just barely out of Keith’s reach before he could take it back, “you’d better text him by the next 30 minutes or I _will_ text something for you. Preferably something embarrassing, okay?”

 

“Okay.” Keith said, voice slightly wavering because, though it may not look like it, Shiro has all types of blackmail on everyone. So there’s no telling what he could send to Lance if he didn’t text him in those thirty minutes.

 

“Good,” Shiro said as he returned the phone, “Now I gotta hot pocket to eat and a new episode of Bubble Guppies.”

 

“You’re twenty-five, Shiro,” Keith yelled as he goes to his room.

 

“And you’re eighteen and freaking out about sending a boy a text, don’t act like we’re all old farts,” Shiro yelled back.

 

“You’re an old fart!” Keith said as he closed his door.

 

That’s when the panic went from mild to spicy. Thirty minutes to say something to a cute boy. Keith can do this,  _ I can do this. _ Keith thought as he sat on his bed and stared at his phone.

 

Maybe a simple what’s up could do? Or just a hello, that would be fine right? Maybe he could pull something his psychology professor would say, like a Howdy doo, you young fellow?...

 

Probably not that one… 

 

What if texting now would seem too desperate? What if he’s still closing the store? That would be unlikely because it’s already 10:30 and he’s already taken 15 minutes deciding what to say and he’s screwed. 

 

Finally with much internal contemplation, only five minutes left before Shiro would come in and murder him metaphorically, and his cat’s moral support he sends a text,

 

**(10:42) Hey, it’s Keith.**

 

Keith then tosses his phone onto a pillow on the other side of the room and screams into his pillow. He probably shouldn’t have done that. Now he will die a peaceful death, with his wonderful cat beside him. Who needs boys when you already got a wonderful, soft, and fluffy boy right here. Red would never betray him. 

 

Right as he thinks that, Red jumps off of the bed and crawls under the bed.

 

_ Traitor,  _ Keith thinks as he looks to stare at his phone.

 

After about 4 minutes, it buzzes and Keith cautiously gets off his bed and crawls towards it.

 

He opens it up and reads the message.

 

_ (10:46) who’s keith, lol _

 

Keith almost cries.

 

But, in a couple of seconds comes another message,

 

_ (10:47) oh is this the Mr. Grumpy Pants himself? _

 

Keith never thought he could be more relieved.

 

**(10:47) Oh yah, that’s me**

 

_ (10:47) wowie, imma be honest _

_ (10:47) i didn’t think you would actually text me _

 

Keith was confused. Why  _ wouldn’t _ Keith text him? He seemed nice enough.

 

**(10:48) Why not?**

 

_ (10:49) well, who would text a person who put their phone number in their phone, without asking first i may add _

 

**(10:48) Obviously me**

**(10:48) Why did you do that btw?**

 

Keith was hoping for some answers because really, why would a person do that?

 

_ (10:49) well first off you’re cute, so jot that down _

 

Oh, this boy was too strong. He had the power to make Keith blush over  _ text _ . Keith doesn’t know what to think about that.

 

_ (10:50) and second off, i’ve been trying to get fired since the moment i got the job at hot topic and i think this might be the breaking point _

 

**(10:50) Why don’t you just quit?**

 

_ (10:50) that’s not a part of the bet _

 

**(10:51) You mentioned that earlier, what bet did you make anyways.**

 

_ (10:51) Oh that’s a fuckin doosy let me tell yah _

 

**(10:51) Okay**

 

_ (10:52) so i was playing truth or dare with some friends, and i chose dare, like you’re supposed to in a good game of truth or dare _

 

**(10:52) So I see your first mistake**

 

_ (10:53) rude _

_ (10:55) so anyways, i chose dare and my friend, being the little gremlin shit she is, dared me to apply to hot topic for a job, which she then added the terms, “if you do get the job, the only way that you can get out of it is either getting fired, or paying me 100 bucks,” and do you know what i could get for a hundred bucks, keith??? _

 

**(10:56) Not particularly, no**

 

_ (10:56) i could buy 100 things from the dollar store, keith! 100 THINGS! _

 

**(10:57) That is a lot of things**

 

_ (10:57) exactly _

_ (11:00) so after she bets that i made the worst application i could, but i guess they were short on staff anyways so they hired me and i’ve been there for six months _

 

**(11:01) I guess they couldn’t pass up on your charm**

 

That was a risky text. Keith knew that was a risky text. But it was sent. Keith sent it. Lance had seen it. Keith is dying. And Keith is dead. But then Keith here’s a faint worried meow from the bottom of his bed and he is alive and well again. He knew Red cared for him, he just has a funny way of showing it.

 

He get’s a message on his phone and he is prepared for death.

 

_ (11:02) no one can resist this charm baby _

_ (11:02) {Image Sent} _

 

Keith looks at the image and simultaneously is amused and flustered. It’s a picture of Lance in front of a mirror his pajamas, which is just a baggy swim team shirt and some shark print pajama pants. He’s smirking with his hand on his chin. He doesn’t know whether to find it ridiculous, cute, or hot.

 

He doesn’t know how to respond to that for a minute, then he finally settles for something he thinks is pretty safe.

 

**(11:04) You know what, conversation canceled. Over. Done. Gone**

**(11:04) I’m going to bed. Bye**

 

_ (11:05) so rude. goodnight then.  _

 

Keith then realises he’s been sitting on the floor that entire conversation. He’s walks over to his bed and plops down into it, smiling at the conversation he just had. 

 

_ That was nice,  _ he thought,  _ look at me, making friends, take that pidge, saying that the only other friends that I would make would probably be a cryptid. But I would totally be best friends with mothman though. _

 

His thoughts then abruptly stop as he gets one last message

_ (11:09) sweet dreams _

 

Keith goes to bed with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is me as an adult.


	3. Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith eats breakfast and gets a meme

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo... Season 4 amirite????? 
> 
> Honestly I wrote this because, I'm like a full blown Keith stan, and he just got left out of the season and I'm salty. I think I might upload another chapter tomorrow or something just cause I want to write about my baby when he couldn't even be in this season. And then the last episode... Man he deserved better.

Keith did not have a good morning. He slept for eleven hours which is eight more than usual and he was  _ tired. _

 

He felt groggy and dead to the world, which is how he usually feels but this was worse. He felt like flying head first into death. Now that should be worrying, but Keith really didn’t care right now. He could disappear off the face of the Earth for a couple weeks and he still wouldn't care. Because, as you might see if you could take one general glance at his face, that he was already dead.

 

He gently moved his cat off his chest and went to the bathroom. That’s when he finally got a good look at himself in the mirror. His hair was sticking up at odd angles all around and he had dark circles under his eyes. He was still wearing what he wore to Hot Topic yesterday because it was basically his pajamas anyways. He contemplates taking a shower, but he doesn't feel like it, so he just brushes his teeth and leaves.

 

When he enters the living room, he sees the remnants of Shiro’s hot pocket and the decorative pillows messed up along the couch. Shiro must’ve fallen asleep on it again. Keith fixes the pillows and goes to eat some breakfast. 

 

He looks in the fridge and remembers that they forgot to go grocery shopping. All they have is a single egg, vegan bacon, a third of a gallon of milk left, three slices of bread, and ketchup. Shiro ate the last hot pocket but didn’t throw out the box, so he feels utterly betrayed. 

 

He goes with the vegan bacon, because A, he doesn’t know how to cook an egg, and B, he’s pretty sure that he doesn’t have to cook vegan bacon all that much. Well he doesn’t even know how they  _ have  _ vegan bacon in the first place so he might as well eat it. 

 

He places the bacon in the microwave for a minute and goes to sit at their breakfast bar. He turns on his phone and sees the text conversation from last night.

 

_ (11:09) sweet dreams _

 

Keith still smiles just looking at it. What a turn of events, huh? Keith buys new jeans, gets called an edgelord, and now has a crush… 

 

Keith’s doomed.

 

He’s startled by three noises all at once. Both Red and Luna meowing at him to give them food, the microwave beeping, and a message on his phone. He decides to feed his and Shiro’s cats first because he can’t believe he forgot about his baby… and Luna too of course, but that’s more Shiro’s fault. He wasn’t responsible for his cat, no matter how much Shiro says “if I die, I want you to take care of Luna.” Sure, there was that whole time when Luna would only listen to Keith, which was slightly annoying. And the worst part of that was that Red wouldn’t even listen to anyone at that time, he just sat at the door and stared at it like he was waiting for someone. That one was more creepy than anything. 

 

But Red came back around anyways, which is great seeing how long it took for Keith to make Red like him. Shiro still has a recording of him trying to get Red out from under his bed by saying “It’s mE KeiTH your bUDDY!” Shiro vowed never to get rid of it, which just added to the list of blackmail he had.

 

He put some cat food in Red and Luna’s respective bowl’s and stared at the cat food for a bit…

 

_ That has meat in it,  _ he thought…

  
  


_ Don’t _

  
  


He turned around and went to go eat his vegan bacon. 

 

_ Microwaved vegan bacon should be okay right?  _ Keith thought, _ I mean it doesn’t have any meat so you can’t any diseases from that…. _

 

Keith could never be a vegan. He ate his lukewarm food and checked the message on his phone.

 

It was from Lance.

 

Keith opened it, slightly confused at why he got a message so soon.

 

_ (10:39) {Image sent} _

 

It was a meme. It was that one Kim Kardashian meme and it had the text, “I like dropping hints that I’m still emo; I walk a lonely road the only o-”...

 

What.

 

**(10:43) What.**

 

_ (10:44) it made me think of you <333 _

 

...Sh- Should Keith be offended?

 

**(10:44) …**

**(10:45) Thanks?**

 

_ (10:45) your welcome bb _

 

Gosh diggity darn, Keith’s blushing again. 

 

This is the most he’s blushed since… actually we don’t speak of that time.

 

He eats his vegan bacon while smiling at the text. He’s still doomed, but he’s feeling less bad about it now.

 

He sends a text to Shiro just to bother him and complain.

 

**(10:47) I’m dying, squirtle**

 

(10:53) Join the club.

 

**(10:54) Shiro this is serious**

 

(10:54) I’m sure it is.

 

**(10:55) Shiiiirrrrrroooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 

(10:56) What is so important, my dear brother, that you had to text me while I’m working?

 

**(10:57) Don’t use that sarcastic tone on me**

 

(10:57) It is a completely sincere text, thank you very much.

 

**(10:58) h**

**(10:58) Anyways two things,**

**(10:59) We’re out of food,**

 

(11:00) I know.

 

**(11:00) Get food then, you just left me to starve**

 

(11:04) You would’ve just gone to McDonalds anyway.

 

**(11:05) Still**

**(11:05) And now that I realize something, I’m not telling you my second problem**

 

Keith realized he really shouldn’t tell Shiro about his… predicament. That would just be handing him blackmail on a silver platter. It’s not that Keith doesn’t want Shiro’s “advice…” Actually it’s exactly that.

 

(11:10) Is this about the boy?

 

Shoot, Shiro’s a mind reader. Keith needs a distraction…

 

**(11:11) 11:11 make a wish**

 

Yeah that works.

 

(11:12) I did.

(11:12) Now tell me Keith, is it about the boy?

 

Shit, it didn’t work.

 

**(11:14) Would you look at that, Red’s trying to jump out the window again, talk to you later Shiroooooo**

 

Nailed it.

 

(11:20) We’re talking about this later, I hope you know that.

 

Well… Did Keith mention he’s doomed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If a vegan is reading this, please tell me how you actually eat vegan bacon, because I have no clue.
> 
> Also I had to scroll through my meme collection to find a meme that Lance would send to Keith and I felt like that one was perfect.


	4. Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance invites Keith to his Lunch break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhh, so I changed the tags so they're less word vommity.
> 
> I hope you like this chapter, because, again, I can't write.
> 
> Oh yeah and this one's a bit longer than the others, so have fun.

Keith decided to face this problem the healthy way he always does.

 

Ignoring them until they go away.

 

Who cares if a cute boy is talking to him? He’s got cats and Netflix readily available. 

 

But then again he doesn’t want to stay cooped up in the house all day. Maybe he could go cryptid hunting again? No, that won’t work, they know he’s looking for them now.

 

Keith then gets two messages on his phone. Wow he must be popular.

 

It’s… it’s from Lance again.

 

_ (11:34) hey, keith _

_ (11:35) are ya busy right now? _

 

Keith stares at that for what feels like a solid hour, though when he looks at the clock it’s only been 4 minutes.

 

What could that mean??? Is Keith busy? No. But when is he ever busy? Apart from looking for aliens or cryptids and wondering if he should go back to college. Does watching your cat make you busy? 

 

Wait. When people ask if someone’s busy or not, that usually means that they want them to do something. Or that’s what Keith assumes. Maybe he’s just asking if he’s busy for the hell of it.

 

**(11:40) No**

 

Wait, does that seem rude? It’s just a one word answer. Great now he’ll never have a chance with Lance. Well Keith guesses that’s okay. He’s lived this long without a cute boy as a maybe friend or something else that Keith has no idea how to explain, he can survive without one.

 

But it would be  _ really  _ nice to have one.

 

_ (11:41) neato _

_ (11:45) wanna come bother me at hot topic? there’s no one here and i’m bored _

 

Oof. Keith’s done for. He’s been shot down. Shot through the heart. And Lance is to blame. 

 

_ Darlin, you give love a bad- _

 

No time for 80s music, Keith. Lance just asked him to bother him at Hot Topic… Is that a normal thing people ask? And if so, why would he ask Keith? They met each other yesterday. Is this how quickly someone is supposed to make friends?

 

**(11:49) Why me?**

 

Is that rude again? God damn it, Keith. He’s done fucked up this texting thing again. 

 

_ (11:52) oh, all my other friends keep as far away from hot topic as possible _

_ (11:55) and i assumed you would be one of the best options since you were here yesterday, and you just said you weren't busy… _

 

Well that was a pretty sound argument as far as Keith is concerned. 

 

He was about to type out an ‘ _ a okay’ _ when he got another message.

 

_ (11:58) also i’d like to get to know you better _

 

Keith stared at the message for about a minute and then proceed to google if humans could spontaneously combust, because if they could, Keith was well on his way to. He was curled up into a ball on the couch, his face felt on fire, his heart felt like it skipped a couple beats. His cat was meowing at him, probably to tell if he was okay,  _ which he is  _ **_not._ **

 

That is the sweetest thing he’s heard in awhile, and he’s worked at coffee shop, and some of the things people order are beyond sweet and pass into diabetes categories. Like, they don’t even need caffeine, they could just run on a sugar high. But he got fired from that for not showing up a couple times. It’s not his fault he was busy, okay! He just thought the other thing he was working on was more important.

 

Anyways, back to the nice boy who asked him to hang out with him at his job.

 

God is both so kind and oh so cruel for this day.

 

**(12:00) Yeah, sure**

 

_ (12:01) sweet. _

  
\---------------

 

It took Keith 10 minutes for Keith to get to the mall with there being little to no traffic and Keith  _ slightly  _ ignoring the speed limit. 

 

The mall wasn’t that full, even on a Sunday. They lived in a small town anyways so it never really does get full anyways. Except on like, Black Friday or a day before Christmas, but what mall doesn’t get full on those days?

 

Keith was approaching the Hot Topic, and suddenly regrets every choice he has ever made. He’s wearing jeans, a pastel black (light gray for you common folks, but this is the main way Keith defends himself when people say he only way Keith defends himself when people say he only owns sad colored clothes…  _ talking to you,  _ **_Pidge_ ** ) t-shirt, and a red flannel with rolled up sleeves. (Because you know, October. Good for plaid.) He tried to go for a look where he tried, but not too hard because he didn’t want to seem desperate. He at least know’s he’ll look better than yesterday, seeing as he is in something other than pajamas. Though Keith kinda regrets not taking that shower now.

 

He walks to the entrance of the Hot Topic and sees the boy, who’s been making Keith a mess since 9:00 yesterday. He’s slouching over the counter, looking at his phone with a furrow in his brow while biting a nail. He’s wearing blue hoodie and black jeans. He doesn’t seem to notice that Keith is there yet. 

 

Keith just stands there for a couple seconds wondering how he should make his presence known. He settles on walking in very normally, like a normal human with working legs would normally walk on a normal day up to the counter. Lance still is staring very intensly at his phone in what seems to be deep in thought. Keith should say something…

 

“HEY.” 

 

That was way too loud.

 

Lance jumps and makes a sound of surprise as he drops his phone on the counter. Keith sees a glimpse of a text conversation before Lance sweeps it away.

 

“Oh my lord, what are you? A ninja?” Lance said, slightly out of breath and a bit of a blush on his face, which makes Keith blush a bit because by golly that is cute.

 

“That wouldn’t make any sense though,” Keith pointed out, a bit confused “If I were a ninja, I wouldn’t have said anything at all, that would ruin the whole ninja thing, wouldn’t it?”

 

“You just surprised me that’s all,” Lance says as he composes himself a bit, “You just showed up outta nowhere... Like a horse.”

 

Keith scrunched up his nose in confusion, “...Like a what?”

 

“A horse,” Lance explained quite flippantly, “One minute there’s no horse behind you and then, BAM, a mare’s chewing on your coat.”

 

“I don’t think that’s a normal thing that happens,” At least, Keith’s pretty sure. He goes outside pretty often and he hasn’t seen any horses show up… unless they’re already watching and Keith’s never noticed… 

 

_ They could be watching now… _

 

 

**_Stop._ **

****

Keith ignored that possibility as Lance continued talking, “Oh no it happens pretty often. It’s happened to me 7 times already. I guess you wouldn’t understand city boy.” Lance said while smirked and leaned on the counter.

 

“I’m from Texas,” Keith said. He remembers enough from that time to know he lived in a shack, which he technically owns since that was written in his father’s will and all. But he left Texas when he was about ten. That’s when Shiro’s family took him in. 

 

“You are?” Lance asked, seeming genuinely intrigued. 

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Did you grow up in a city in Texas though?” Lance said as he leaned back off the counter.

 

Keith grew up in multiple places, from cities to a farm (for like a month), and the Shirogane’s house was more in the suburbs, so he really didn’t have that much of answer for that, “Uhm, Kinda.”

 

“Well there you go you’re a city boy.”

 

“Well where did you grow up then if you ain’t a city boy.”

 

“You’re trying too hard with that accent now.”

 

“I might be.”

 

“You are. Anyhow, I grew up on a farm in Cuba.”

 

“Y’aint seemed like a farmer's boy to me,” Keith said, accentuating both his posture and accent. He hasn’t spoken like this in so long and the look on Lance’s face makes him giggle.

 

“I don’t know whether I should continue to be scared of you or find your laugh adorable.” Lance said with a light blush across his cheeks but still a horrified expression on his face.

 

“Hey!” Keith stopped laughing and now also had a burning face, which he ignored, still like all of his problems, “Nothing about me is cute. I’m pure darkness and despair.”

 

“Oh wow, you just went from Texan to emo in less than a minute. You sure you didn’t get whiplash from that change, Samurai?”

 

“Samurai?”

 

“You didn’t seem to like ninja.”

 

“Well I do have a knife collection.”

 

“Why am I not surprised.”

 

As Lance said that a really tall, lumbering person walked in. They actually did look like your average Hot Topic Employee™… Except bigger.

 

“Oh hi, Laika,” Lance waved at the newcomer as they waved back, “They’re my co-worker, which means now I’m on my lunch break, good luck, dude.” Lance said as he walked around the counter.

 

“Yup.” Laika said back to Lance as they took his place.

 

“Let’s go to the food court, Keith,” Lance stated as he started walking out the store.

 

Keith blinked as he blindly started following Lance.

 

Food Court? Keith didn’t know they would be going to a food court??? That’s pretty… date like…. Nooo this isn’t a date. It’s just Lance’s lunch break. Who would bring someone on a date to their lunch break? Would that even qualify as a date? Like Keith would know.

 

“You hungry? Cause I’ll get you something if you want,” Lance said, knocking Keith out of his thoughts. Lance just offered to buy Keith  _ food _ . And he’s  _ paying _ . 

 

Bless.

 

“Yeah, sure. All I had today was four slices of lukewarm vegan bacon.”

 

“You’re vegan?”

 

“No.”

 

“Good, cause we’re going to the best stall in this mall, and it’s run by my best friend so I also get a discount.”

 

As they approached the food court, Lance started heading to one called “Vrepit Sal’s” which Keith was sure meant something that he didn’t understand. It had a pretty big line, but Lance seemed excited for it anyways. They also grabbed free samples from the other restaurants too. Because you know, it’s what you do.

 

“Just wait until you try some of this food, my dude,” Lance started saying as they got to the line, “Once you try it, your taste buds  _ will _ explode and you will  _ die  _ from flavor,” Lance said, gesturing wildly and almost hitting the person next to them in line multiple times. 

 

“That sounds serious, why would I eat the food if I can die from it?” Sure, Keith did kinda want to die, but from his taste buds exploding wasn’t a way he planned to go out. His planned mostly involved space and sacrificing himself for an intergalactic war. Though he would probably not  _ actually _ kill himself… 

 

_ Right?  _

 

“I meant you would really like the food. If you did die, it would be a nice death. Unless you have an allergic reaction or something. That would suck. Are you allergic to anything?”

 

“I’m lactose intolerant,” Keith shrugged as he said that because he was never sure if that counted as an allergy or not.

 

“Shoot, we can never do that cliche milkshake sharing thing now”

 

Keith blushed at that thought, “Well it technically doesn't have to be a milkshake.”

 

“So you're saying you're willing to do the milkshake thing?”

 

“I didn't say that.”

 

They approached the front of the line, and the man behind the counter was certainly a  _ man.  _ Personally, not Keith’s type (even though he didn’t really have a type, he just prefers to go with the flow… mostly he wasn’t his type because he was currently infatuated with Lan-  _ stop it, Keith, focus _ ). He seemed like the kind of guy who would give very nice hugs.

 

Hold up. This guy can cook…

 

That’s enough of an incentive for “Keith’s type” as any…

 

Can Lance cook?

 

“Yoooo, Hunk, ma man, ma dude,” Lance said, erratically doing finger guns at the man- er Hunk.

 

That’s fitting.

 

Keith followed Lance to the counter, awkwardly standing behind him as this exchange went on.

 

“Hey, Lance. Do you want your usual? Also don’t take too long this time, the line’s already getting longer,” Hunk said, slightly annoyed but with a certain fondness that seemed like this happened regularly. 

 

“Oh of course I want the usual. And also,” Lance paused as he put his arm around Keith and brought him to the forefront of the conversation, “This is Keith, and I need to introduce him to your wonderful food items. So serve him the very best on your menu.” Lance said, still somehow gesticulating wildly with one arm still around Keith. Which was a… a thing.

 

A definite thing.

 

Keith’s not blushing…

  
  


(Okay maybe a little)

 

Hunk started preparing the food, “Wait, are you the same guy that Lance gave his phone number to yesterday and Lance started frea-” 

 

“YES,” Lance yelled, (directly in Keith’s ear might I add due to their very close proximity.) “It’s the same guy from yesterday.”

 

“Huh,” Hunk finished what Keith assumed to be Lance’s meal and pushed it to the register, and let me tell ya, it looked  **_way_ ** better than vegan bacon, “So, why are you here today then, Keith?”

 

“I had nothing better to do,” Keith shrugged as best as he can with Lance’s arm still on his shoulders, “It was either this, or watch my cat and starve.”

 

“Seems legit,” Hunk said as he put the finishing touches on the food. Lance finally took his arm off Keith’s shoulders and payed for the food. Keith missed it a bit. They said bye to Hunk and then both took their food and went to go sit at a table in the corner. 

 

“So,” Keith said once they sat down, “What is this?” 

 

“Only the best food you’ll ever eat,” Lance said, already with a mouth full.

 

“I don’t know,” Keith said, with a playful lilt in his voice, “One time I ate a bull’s testicle and that was pretty good.”

 

Lance swallowed his food and blinked, “You ate a what.”

 

“Hey, 20 dollars is 20 dollars,” That was all Keith offered as an explanation. 

 

Keith tried his food with Lance still looking at him like he’s insane, and gee golly that was good. Keith’s eyes widened as he tried another bite. 

 

“ _ What the fuck,”  _ Keith said softly, but with passion. 

 

“I told you it was good,” Lance said as he took another bite of his own food, seemingly ignoring the previous topic of conversation,  “Now eat, I didn’t pay the discounted price of this food for nothing.”

 

Their conversation faded into a comfortable silence as they ate. Lance asked a few questions and, joked a bit here and there, which Keith laughed at some, though some he didn’t get but Lance just explained them. Which was actually very nice.

 

Keith’s never really had this before, this sort of easy banter with a person. It was nice. It was just like they skipped the whole awkward year that Keith had with anyone he just met when Lance called him an edgelord. Man that was a weird way to make a… friend? Is that what this is? Friendship? It feels like something else though that Keith still can’t quite put his finger on.

 

Maybe it is Lance? He’s nothing like any of the other friends he’s had before… No wait. He’s exactly like Matt. Except he doesn’t look anything like Pidge. Holy shit Matt is just a combination of Lance and Pidge. 

 

Well, that’s a realization and a half. But that still doesn’t really explain why Lance doesn’t feel like any friend he’s had before…

 

_ It’s not bad though,  _ Keith thought

 

They finish up their food and when Lance finished telling a story about how he once got handcuffed to a tree, he checks his phone for the time “Aw shoot, my lunch breaks over,” Lance said as he got up. 

 

“Oh okay,” Keith slightly deflated as he realised their time together had come to an end. He raised back up when he realized that could be considered a little weird. He got up and stood next to Lance.

 

“Uhm, yeah, it usually gets busy after lunch so, I’ll text you later than,” Lance said as he waved his phone a bit.

 

“Uhm yeah.” Keith realized this is the first awkward conversation they’ve had. Keith felt like he should do something but then Lance waved and started walking away…

 

Unfortunately it was also the way Keith was leaving. So they just walked on forward in silence until apparently Lance couldn’t take it anymore.

 

“SO,” Lance said rather loudly and flinched when he heard it too, “How old are you?”

 

Keith snorted, “Really, That’s the best you can come up with?”

 

“Hey,” Lance said indignantly, “Gotta learn everything about the bae,” He had a smirk and wiggled his eyebrows in a way Keith did not know was possible. But it did make him laugh a bit.

 

“I’m 18, you weirdo.”

 

“Oh sweet, so am I, when’s your birthday?”

 

Keith thought about it for a moment and realized, “Oh yeah, it’s tomorrow.”

 

“What.”

 

“I forgot about that.” 

 

Lance looked slightly frustrated, “Your birthday’s tomorrow??? How am I supposed to get you gift in one day?”

 

“I mean, you really don’t have t-”

 

“I must.”

 

“It’s not that importa-”

 

“ **I must.** ” Lance seemed pretty set on that.

 

Keith tried one more time, “You seriously don’t have to do tha-”

 

“Keith,” Lance stopped walking to look directly at him, “It is your birthday tomorrow. It is principle that I should get you a gift. I. am. getting. you. a. gift. Whether you like it or not.”

 

The intensity of Lance’s gaze made Keith feel like he didn’t have a choice for this at all. Keith looked away when he started blushing and started to walk again. 

 

“Well I guess you can then,” Keith said in a grumpy voice.

 

“You better believe I will, mark my words Keith, mark them.”

 

As they reached the Hot Topic, they realized that they still don’t know when to do when they part.

 

“So, yeah, see ya later,” is what Keith settled on.

 

“Yeah, see ya.” 

 

A couple seconds passed where they were just standing there, staring at each other. Until Lance’s face turned into one of determination and he walked up to Keith as he put one hand on his face and kissed his cheek.

 

“Happy early birthday,” He said, and his face looked about as red as Keith’s felt.

 

He retreated back into the store somewhat like how Keith first walked in there that day. Keith gently raised a hand to the cheek that Lance had just kissed. As Lance almost fully retreated into the store, he looked back at Keith and gave a last wave with a grin to match. Keith couldn’t help but return the gesture.

 

As he was driving back home on his motorcycle he couldn't help but think. Whatever relationship is going on here with Lance, he couldn’t be gladder with the way it seems to be turning out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm Thanks for reading my garbage.


	5. Birth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barf, Bee Movie, Cuddles, and Sweaters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. This happened.
> 
> I meant to get this out on Keith's birthday but a lot school things got in the way so I'm really sorry about that.
> 
> But hey! This chapter includes cuddles, which is one of my favorite things that I don't get!
> 
> So yeah. Here it is.
> 
> Enjoy.

 

Keith awoke from his free trial of death, unfortunately, at 8:30 am. Congrats, Keith, you woke up at a normal time for once. His cat was nowhere to be found and he could hear chatter from outside his bedroom. Quite angry chatter he might add....

 

Eh, Shiro’s probably just talking to himself again. That crazy fellow. 

 

Last night he tried to get him to talk about Lance but then stopped when he realized Keith was too stubborn for anything.

 

And yesterday, whoo wee let Keith tell ya. He couldn’t stop smiling for at least an hour when he got home and he still blushed whenever he touched his cheek. He smiled again just thinking about it.

 

He looked at his phone and saw three messages that were each sent to him at 12:00 am from, Pidge, Matt, and, you guessed it, Lance. 

 

He opened Pidge’s first and saw a picture of her and her dog with birthday hats on, holding a sign that said, HAPPY BORN.

 

Then he opened Matt’s second and saw a birthday meme. It was… something.

 

And finally he opened Lance’s which was… well…

  
  


_ (12:00) Today marks a great day, a wondrous day, for it is the day of your birth, congrats on being birthed, glad you got birthed, you were pushed out of your mother’s womb all those years ago, good job, you were birthed, out of a womb, or an egg (probably the egg), if an egg, good job on getting through that tough shell, proud of you, make sure to bust through any other tough shells that stand in your way, if not, I’ll smash them for you, because you have been borth, and you are neat. _

_ (12:01) i copy and paste this to all of my friends during their birthdays, so i’m letting you know that you’re gonna see this every year now _

 

…. Why did Keith like this dork again? He thought he had higher standards than this. Or maybe he’s just picky. Keith doesn’t think he’s picky. He just doesn’t really tolerate intolerable people. And that makes up about 87% of guys he’s met. The other 11% thought Keith was a loner or too closed off. And the last 2% makes up any male that has spoken with Keith for long periods of time. He’s calculated all of this, trust him.

 

He supposed he should send a message back to all of them.

 

**To Pidge:**

**(8:34) Thanks**

 

**To Matt:**

**(8:34) Thanks**

 

**To Lance <333**

**(8:35) Thanks**

 

That works.

 

Keith then decided to scroll through his various social media’s (including his instagram, which was just cats and baking videos), until he got bored and decided to investigate the grumbling coming out from the other side of his door. He got up and opened it and he could finally make out what was being said.

 

“This is pointless,” that sounded like Pidge, “Why should we surprise him in the morning, why should we be here if we could’ve just seen him later in the day. I didn’t even have breakfast yet!”

 

“You’ll have cake for breakfast and doing this in the morning is better, since that’s what we did back home,  _ so  _ **_stop_ ** _ complaining,”  _ Shiro sounded as if he were struggling with something while he was talking, “And why don’t you  _ stay still,”  _ Keith heard an annoyed meow after that.

 

_ Oh no. _

 

_ He’d better not be holding Red, _ Keith thought as he started down the hallway,  _ He know’s if Red’s held the wrong way he’ll throw u- _

 

Suddenly Keith’s train of thought is interrupted by a bunch of shocked gasps around in the room ahead of him.

 

“Man that is gross,” That’s Matt.

 

Keith walks into the room and is greeted by a scene. Pidge is barely holding in laughter, Shiro looks disgusted looking down on the cat vomit on his shirt, and Matt seems to be pretty neutral about the situation, though having a slight smirk on his face. Red, who was on the floor now, had noticed Keith and walked up to him and started to rub against Keith’s legs. There was a half put up happy birthday sign behind them and a birthday cake to his right on the breakfast bar. 

 

They all finally noticed him standing there.

 

“Happy Barf-Day Keith,” Shiro said as Pidge finally burst out laughing and crumpled to the floor. Keith also started laughing but kinda wanted to kick Shiro in the shins for that pun. Matt just started scrolling through his phone as Shiro went and got a new shirt. Red seemed to be glaring at him as he past by Keith and went into his room.

 

By the time he got back, they were still recovering from their laugh fest.

 

“Keith, get better control of your cat,” Shiro said walking to the kitchen sink and throwing his shirt in there. 

 

“This had happened three times already, I thought you knew not to hold him by now,” Keith responded, slightly breathy from his sudden laugh attack.

 

“Geez, nevermind what I said,” Pidge said from the floor, “This was an amazing idea to come here. 10 outta 10, would do again,” she made an okay symbol with her hand.

 

“I hate you both,” Shiro said as he’d finished drowning his previous shirt.

 

“What? How dare you say that to your darling brother on his birthday,” Keith said with mock sadness.

 

“Yeah, that’s pretty shitty, Shiro,” Matt injected. 

 

“Matt, you’ve betrayed me, I thought you were on my side,” Shiro said with betrayal in his voice and very soul.

 

“I take no sides, I am the peacemaker in this society,” Matt placed a hand on his chest to show that he meant biz. 

 

“Tell that to last month’s ‘incident’” Pidge said, still on the floor and making quotation marks.

 

“THAT WAS ONE TIME PIDGE.” Matt yelled.

 

“Keep telling yourself that,” Pidge finally got off the floor and gave Keith a one armed hug, “Happy birthday, dude. You’re one year closer to death!”

 

“I know, it’s great,” He said as Pidge retreated and Matt went to ruffle his hair.

 

“You’re 19 broski, which means you can do absolutely nothing different than last year, congratulations.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Eloquent,” Matt walked away as Shiro started talking. 

 

“I can’t believe you’re 19. It feels like just a year ago you were tossing any object near you at my head and now you at least make sure it’s a soft object.”

 

Keith did that a lot last year. “Ha ha, yeah.”

 

“I say,” Pidge started saying as she got off the floor, “Let’s eat the breakfast cake!”

 

A surrounding hum of yeah’s erupted around the room as they all crowded around the cake as Shiro lit the candle.

 

They all sang the birthday song, which made Keith especially awkward as it always does. He blew out the candle to make a wish, which he won’t tell you because that’s not how wishes work.

 

They all took a slice of cake and chatted a bit as they ate. The cake was lemon flavored, the best flavor, and didn’t have that much icing because Keith didn’t like icing all that much.

 

When it got time for everyone to leave they all said their goodbyes and Keith got some more happy birthday’s as they left and told Keith to tell them how he liked their gifts.

 

Shiro had to leave for work also, and Keith already decided he was going to call in sick today because he didn’t want to go on his birthday anyway. He’s allowed to treat himself, okay?

 

As Shiro left, Keith was in the house all by himself again and he didn’t know what to do now. He settled on playing with Red and Luna with a laser pointer. He did that for about 15 great minutes until a message pinged on his phone.

 

_ (9:57) yo, keith _

 

Oh would you look at that, it’s from Lance. 

 

_ (9:58) i got your gift _

_ (9:58) but then i realized i kinda have no way to give it to you _

_ (9:58) which is a slight overlook on my part  _

 

He… He actually got Keith a gift?

 

That’s… really nice.

 

**(10:03) Oh**

**(10:04) You actually got me a gift**

 

_ (10:04) what do you mean “you actually got me a gift???” _

_ (10:04) of course I did _

_ (10:04) it’s your birthday _

 

Keith really didn’t know what to do with this information.

 

**(10:06) Well**

**(10:07) Thanks?**

 

_ (10:07) i haven’t even given it to you yet _

 

**(10:08) Thank you in advance?**

 

_ (10:08) keith, you can’t just thank someone in advance. _

 

**(10:08) Look what I just did Lance**

 

_ (10:09) you did something wrong is what you did. _

 

**(10:10) It’s my birthday, I can’t do anything wrong.**

 

_ (10:10) shoot, you’re right _

_ (10:11) speaking of birthdays _

_ (10:11) how am i supposed to give you this gift? _

 

Keith thought about that for a bit. He could wait until they’re both free and pick it up then. But no, that’s both inconvenient and Lance seems pretty set on giving him the gift today. They could go meet up somewhere, but Keith really wants to not go outside today, it’s the one day he’s allowed to….

 

He could invite Lance to his apartment….

 

No, they just met two days ago. Why would Keith give someone he barely knows his address right? He wouldn’t do that…

 

_ Right? _

  
  
  


_ \-------------------- _

  
  
  


Keith invited him to his apartment.

 

He’s  _ weak, okay??? _

 

Impulse decisions are a thing. They’re not a good thing, but they are a thing. And Keith is  _ really _ bad at controlling them. He’s made a mistake, but he can’t take it back now. In fact, he’s screwed. He should just leave for a couple of months until this all blows over, and show back up in a hawaiian shirt and khakis. Also a pina colada. Non alcoholic though, because Keith is 19 and that would be breaking the law and Keith can’t go back to jail.

 

But if he does that he’ll have to do a lot of planning. And Keith doesn’t have time for that right now. He looks at the state of the apartment, Shiro’s shirt is still drowned in the sink, there’s cat hair everywhere, and there’s a half put up “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” banner in the corner….

 

It’s acceptable.

 

He looked at his outfit in the mirror. He was wearing his red pajama pants and wearing a shirt with three horses with cowboy hats on and looking at the moon. His hair is still in its natural bed head state.

 

Still acceptable. It’s his birthday, people need to accept his messy ways.   
  


Keith sits down on his couch, looking at the text conversation he just had. 

 

**(10:15) You can come to my apartment if you want**

 

_ (10:18) really? _

 

Keith couldn’t tell if that was a good reaction.

 

**(10:20) Yeah, sure**

 

_ (10:24) oh _

_ (10:24) cool _

 

Keith stops looking at the conversation, because it’s causing him panic and it’s his birthday, he should be able to do impulsive decisions without feeling bad about them….

 

He’s in hell.

 

He spends time petting his cat and watching Parks and Rec on Netflix and drowning his sorrows in popcorn until Lance shows up.

 

It actually works for a bit, until he hears a knock at his door. Luna meows at it in interest while sitting by it and Red scatters away to hide behind the curtains. Well that crosses out any other possibility of it being someone they know, so it’s probably Lance. 

 

Keith mentally prepares himself to open the door for a minute. He gets up off the couch and moves to the door and mentally prepares himself again because he is a gosh darn dumb dumb.

 

He opens the door and Lance is leaning against the frame holding a bouquet of flowers and a wrapped gift under his other arm. He’s wearing jeans and a baseball shirt. He also has the classic Dreamworks™ face. 

 

He looks great which is not doing great for Keith’s self esteem. But it’s his birthday so who the heck cares. 

 

(Keith cares)

 

Lance is about to say something when he takes one look at Keith and blushes heavily and his posture loses some of it’s boisterous attitude.

 

“Oh god you’re adorable,” Lance says and then proceeds to blush more, like he didn’t mean to say that.

 

Well doesn’t matter if he meant to say it or not because Keith’s blushing anyways and now they just look like a pair of tomatoes staring at each other for an uncomfortable length of time.

 

Lance collects himself after a bit and shoves the flowers towards Keith.

 

“These are for you,” Lance says, cringing a bit because his voice cracked a bit in the middle.

 

Keith grabbed the flowers and stared at them for a bit. The only flowers he could name in the bouquet were roses and hydrangeas. The rest was a bunch of red and white flowers that he thought looked pretty.

 

Keith looked up and realized that Lance was still staring at him.

 

“Oh! Uhh- Thanks,” Keith said, averting his eyes and giving a slightly awkward smile.

 

“Y-you’re welcome,” Lance stuttered out.

 

Gosh this was a mess, Keith wondered why he asked Lance to come here in the first place…

 

Oh yeah, it’s because he’s weak as shit when it comes to this boy. In the two days he’s known him, he’s already made his way into the strange beating meat in his chest that people call a heart. 

 

Lance shuffles on his feet a bit then asks, “Can I come in?” 

 

Oh shoot Keith forgot about that, “Oh yeah, of course. Make yourself at home.”

 

He lets Lance in and goes to put the flowers in some sort of vase. Luna stays by Lance, sniffing his pants, probably determining if he’s a threat or not. Lance goes down to pat her head and she walks away, apparently deeming him safe. What surprises Keith though is the fact that Red’s not glaring at Lance at all. He seems to have this sort of interested gleam in his eye that Keith’s only seen a seldomly.

 

Lance sits on the couch as Keith puts the flowers in its proper, not gonna die in a day, home, aka the vase. 

 

“I thought you said your cat was red?” Lance asks. 

 

“He is, that was my brother’s cat. Red’s over there,” Keith said, pointing towards the red somali cat still half hiding behind the curtains. “He doesn’t really like new people so it could be a while before he gets used to you,” Keith walked over and sat next to Lance on the couch. 

 

At the sight of Keith getting near the newcomer, Red started slowly walking towards the two. When he finally reached them, he gave Lance’s foot a quick sniff and then plopped right down onto Lance’s feet…

 

Keith never felt more betrayed. “It took three months for him to get used to me,” Keith said, clutching his chest in an offended manner, “and you just waltz right in here and he already likes you? I have friends who he still hates,  _ heck _ , he still hates  _ my brother _ . Are you a wizard?” Keith said with utmost seriousness.

 

“No,” Lance said, with a small smile on his face from Keith’s little rant, “what can I say, I guess I’m just a charmer to all species as well as people,” He slightly leaned into Keith as he leaned down to pet Red, and he  _ purred, he fucking  _ **_purred. The traitor._ **

 

“What are you, a furry?” Keith said as he stared back at Lance and their close proximity.

 

“Yes.” Lance said seriously, his stare boring into Keith’s eyes.

 

They stared at each other like that for about five seconds, until Lance backed away and laughed nervously.

 

“Ha haaa, kidding, kidding,” Lance’s eyes moved back and forth nervously between Keith, Red, and some place on the wall.

 

Keith picked up Red with a meow of protest and held him closer to himself, “Ooookay then.”

 

Keith let Red go again and he went onto Lance’s lap like the traitor he is. Lance scratched at the back of Red’s neck, a sweet spot of his, and his purr rumbled up again. Lance had a small smile as he was petting him and Keith’s heart didn’t know if he could take this adorableness. In fact, Keith probably died two days ago and he’s in either heaven or hell and he can’t decide right now because there is no way this is actually happening. 

 

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot,” Lance takes the gift he put next to him and handed it to Keith, “That’s for you.”

 

“Oh. Thank you,” Keith was about to open it when Lance stopped him by putting his hands over his.

 

“NO nonononooooo no. Don’t open it now,” Lance took back the gift and set it on the coffee table. 

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because,” Lance blushed and looked to the side, “uhhhm, HEY, you watch Parks and Rec, I love that show.”

 

Well what a smooth topic change. Keith decided he would let it go because he could feel the awkwardness radiating off Lance and he felt for him.

 

“Uhm, yeah, I was just rewatching it earlier.”

 

“Oh cool, what episode are you on?”

 

“I’m on episode five, but if we’re gonna watch Netflix we might as well watch a movie,” Keith said as he went to scroll through Netflix.

 

“Oh oh oh, I know the perfect movie, can I see that remote?”

 

“Yeah sure,” Keith handed him the remote (his first mistake), “What are you gonna put?”

 

“Oh you’ll see,” Lance said with a mischievous lilt in his voice that Keith didn’t know if he could trust or not.

 

Lance went to the search option and typed in “ _ B E E” _

 

Oh…

 

Oh no.

 

“Lance, I am not watching the Bee Movie.”

 

“Oh, come on, have you seen it before?”

 

“No, and I never plan to,” Keith crossed his arms and had what he hoped was a stern look on his face.

 

Lance threw his arm around Keith’s shoulder and shook him up a bit, “Come oooonnnnn, stop pouting, Samurai. No matter how cute you are that doesn’t change the fact that you need to see the masterpiece that is the Bee Movie.”

 

Keith blushed but kept up his stubborn posture for about five seconds until he deflated and gave in, “Fine. But I’m gonna complain about it all the way through.”

 

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Lance said as he pressed play. He didn’t move his arm though as they settled back into the couch. Hey, Keith’s not complaining about that now is he?

 

They surprisingly sat through the whole movie, with Keith interjecting his thoughts here and there such as,  _ “Why did she stab herself with a fork? And how does a bee know what Jazz is???” _ or “ _ I’m pretty sure that the judicial system doesn’t work like that.”  _ and,  _ “Bee’s can’t support the weight of the plane, how does this make any sense???”  _ and of course, the ever famous,  _ “Why did she leave her fiance for a bee?”  _ Lance just mostly responded with things like,  _ “Valid question, I don’t know,” “That’s definitely how the judicial system works,” “According to all known laws of aviation, the bee-”  _ and obviously, “ _ Who wouldn’t leave their fiance for  _ **_the_ ** _ Barry B. Benson?” _

 

Keith really didn’t know what he just watched. 

 

“What the fuck just happened?”

 

“Art.”

 

“Lance you just made me watch a movie where a bee sues the human race, wins, and then regrets it.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Lance, I hope you know that I am never letting you choose a movie again.”

 

“What no! One more movie, please,” Lance begged. He had a surprisingly good puppy dog face and Keith had to look away not to be tempted to give in.

 

“No,” Keith got up from where he was previously snuggled into Lance’s side and moved Red from where he was balanced on both of their laps. Not only had Keith watched the Bee Movie, but he watched the Bee Movie while cuddling with a guy he had a crush on, which are two things he had not expected to be doing today.

 

He went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, “Do you want some cake?”

 

“What flavor is it?” Lance said from the couch and petting Red softly, because we all know the rule that you can’t move when you have a sleeping animal on you or else you’re just a horrible person.

 

“Lemon.”

 

“Acceptable, yes I would like some.” 

 

“You want some milk too? We got almond and whole.”

 

“I’ll have the nut milk.”

 

“Nevermind, you get nothing,” Keith said as he was already pouring two glasses of almond milk.

 

“Keith, you’re killing me here.” 

 

“Good.” 

 

Keith finished cutting the slices of cake and walked over to hand Lance it and the glass of “nut milk” and nestled back into Lance’s side. It was warm, okay? And Keith never got to cuddle anyone anyways, let him live.

 

“I don’t even like almond milk that much, I just wanted to make that joke,” Lance admitted.

 

“You opened this can of worms, now lie in it.”

 

“I don’t think that’s how that saying goes,” Lance said as he started eating his cake.

 

“It’s called a malaphor.”

 

“A what?”

 

“A malaphor.”

 

“Oh okay thanks.”

 

They continued chatting as they ate their cake. Most of it was Lance being extremely offended that Keith didn’t like icing and him eating Keith’s icing instead. Which kind of grossed him out because how can someone even eat all that icing? Keith told him such and Lance made an offended noise and stating that he had once eaten an entire tub of icing in one sitting. He refused to tell the reason why though.

 

“Stop judging me, you ate a bull’s testicle once,” Lance said while holding the plate of icing close to him, since Keith just ate the cake.

 

“I’ve also eaten a bath bomb too,” Keith mentioned as he drank his almond milk.

 

“Keith no.”

 

“Yeah…” that was not one of Keith’s proudest moments.

 

“How did that even happen?”

 

“That doesn’t matter,” It said vegan on the label, Keith assumed it was edible, mistakes happened. But Lance doesn’t need to know that.

 

“Well okay…. What did it taste like?” Lance inquired.

 

“At first salt water taffy, then it became really bitter, then it started foaming in my mouth, and then it was just like lavender soap.”

 

“That’s really descriptive.”

 

“Yeah it was hell.”

 

Lance finished his icing and reached back for the remote, “Sooo, Keith, my man, my buddy,” Lance said as he leaned back into Keith’s personal space and put his arm around his shoulder again, “Would you be ever so kind as to let me choose the movie one more time?” Lance gave Keith those puppy dog eyes again and shoot, Keith had no escape this time and he is oh so weak.

 

“Ugh, fine.” Keith hid behind his bangs and crossed his arms when he was suddenly pulled into a hug.

 

“YES.” Judging from the slight movement, Lance just fist pumped while in the hug. Also Keith’s face was smushed up against Lance’s chest and judging by the firmness Lance he worked out. Which is, ya know, nice to know.

 

Lance pulled back with his hands on Keith’s shoulders and said, “You won’t be disappointed.”

 

Keith was already disappointed when Lance pulled away from the hug, but the still maintained the proximity as Keith’s legs were now draped over Lance’s so he was basically in his lap. Red was jostled on top of Keith while the hug happened so he’s fine (if not annoyed) but Keith is certainly not.

 

Lance started searching on the screen for High School Musical, and honestly Keith’s not even surprised at this point. At least he’s seen this one. Shiro made him watch it hundreds of times when he was going through  _ that _ phase. He’d memorized all the songs and dances, but let’s hope Lance doesn’t find out about that.

 

As they watched through the movie, it was basically the same thing as the Bee Movie. Making snide comments here and there about the movie, but with the addition of Lance belting out most of the songs and catching Keith hum along to some. Whenever that happen Lance would try to goad Keith into singing the songs with him, but even if Keith may be weak, he’s not that weak and Lance would give up after 10 minutes.

 

By the end of the movie Keith was half falling asleep. So much for eight so called hours of sleep. That never works. His head was resting on Lance’s shoulder and he was curled up into his side, loosely hugging his waist, with Lance’s hand settled on his arm. He was slightly nodding off too, judging by the way his eyelids were drooping and he stopped singing every song in favor of yawning. Even Red was tired, seeing as he was fast asleep in their laps.

 

When the movie ended Lance yawned and stretched out, startling Keith in his half asleep state. Keith nuzzled his face into Lance’s shoulder and asked “Wuh time izit?” It was dark outside and also pretty cold, but Lance was like a heater and he really didn’t want to move.

 

Lance checked his phone and mumbled, “Six thirty.”

 

“Curse you winter,” Keith grumbled into Lance’s shoulder and then moved away from the living furnace which was Lance, which Keith was already regretting.

 

“It’s actually fall.”

 

“It’s cold is what it is,” Keith said rubbing his eyes.

 

Lance smiled at that for some reason and moved his hand up to fix Keith’s hair, “You’ve got a bedhead.”

 

Keith blushed but let Lance brush his hair with his fingers, “I’ve always got a bedhead.”

 

“Yeah, but this is like, fresh bedhead, so it’s more crazy.”

 

“Hmm,” Keith said as he closed his eyes and settled back onto Lance’s shoulder as he continued to groom his hair. It was nice. Keith hasn’t felt this relaxed since… well he can’t remember. He’d just rather enjoy this moment while it lasted even though Lance was obviously just messing up his hair more than anything.

 

It was about seven o’clock when Lance said that he should probably leave. Keith was slightly sad, but it was fine. He had spent most of the day with him anyways so it was cool. Keith led him to the door as they said their goodbyes. It was slightly awkward again, like yesterday, with them staying slightly longer than they needed too. But, luckily for Keith, that gave him the confidence to return something Lance gave him yesterday.

 

Keith leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, “Thanks for coming.”

 

Both of them were tomatoes and smiling like fools, slightly resembling the start of this whole thing. Keith then waved and shut the door and of course proceeded to slide down it and and put his face in his hands. Man he can’t believe that actually happened. 

 

After a minute he collected himself and checked out the peephole to see if Lance had left yet. To his surprise, he was still out there, holding the cheek Keith kissed with a wide grin on his face, and Keith felt himself grow a similar one just looking at him.

 

Keith remembered something and took out his phone.

 

**To Lance <333**

**(7:03) Hey, can I open the present now?**

 

He looked out the peephole and saw Lance check his phone, start typing something and walk away.

 

_ (7:04) oh yah, of course you can _

 

**(7:04) Good**

 

He went to where the present was still settled on the coffee table and took it to his room with Red in tow. 

 

He sat on the bed and opened the present. Inside there was a card labeled,  _ to Keith <3 _ and a folded article of black clothing.

 

He opened the card first, 

 

_ Dear Keith, _

 

_ So happy birthday! Hope the outside world is better than that egg I assume you came out of. So, I really didn’t know what to get you for two reasons. One, I’m poor, and two I really don’t think I know you as well as well as I can get to know you. So, I made you a sweater because yarn is cheap and I know how to sew. It’s not the best, but it’s as good as it gets with such a short notice. Hope this could be a token of how much our relationship grows next year. Geez that sounded really cheesy, but I’m writing this in pen so it’s there now. Anyways hope you like it and hope to get to know you more. _

 

_ Happy Birthday, _

 

_ From, _

_ Lance <3 _

 

Oh man.

 

That’s one of the sweetest birthday cards that Keith’s ever gotten.

 

His face feels like it’s on fire. He re-reads the card about four times before it fully settles in.

 

_ Lance  _ wants to get to know  _ him  _ better.

 

He  _ made  _ **_Keith_ ** a  **_sweater_ ** . 

 

He feels all warm and fuzzy inside now. 

 

He take the sweater out from the box and giggles. It’s all black with red text across the chest that just reads,  _ Mr. Grumpy Pants. _

 

He really should’ve expected that, but oh it is so great.

 

He puts it on and it’s a bit bigger than it should be. The sleeves fall over his a bit and the end of the sweater reaches a bit down past his waist, but how he loves it. It also smells like Lance, which shouldn’t be a plus, but it really is.

 

He takes a picture of him wearing it in front of the mirror and sends it to Lance telling him so (the part about him loving it not the part about how it smells like him, that would be weird).

 

**(7:10) {Image Sent}**

**(7:11) I love it.**

 

_ (7:18) first off, i’m glad you do, you look adorable _

 

Oof.

 

_ (7:19) but secondly, is it too big? do you want me to go back and fix it? _

 

**(7:19) No, fuck off, I love it, I’m keeping it forever**

 

_ (7:20) well then _

_ (7:20) keep your oversized sweater then, see if i care _

 

**(7:20) I am keeping it**

**(7:21) That’s what I just said**

**(7:22) But really, thank you.**

 

_ (7:25) :Dc _

_ (7:25) you’re welcome! _

 

Once again, Keith goes to sleep with a smile, but with an oversized sweater and something warm in his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the bathbomb thing I literally found a post about a guy who ate a bathbomb, thinking it was a cookie, which was honestly lovely. Also the reason I didn't include as many details about them watching high school musical is because I couldn't remember the plot of that movie for the life of me. What I'm saying is that I watched the bee movie WAY more than I've ever watched high school musical. So yeah.


	6. Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ice Skating and Mcdonalds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hello, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a month. This chapter took a while to write cause I had a lot of stuff with school and all that. So, I'm sorry! But it's here now so... yeah.
> 
>  
> 
> Also I just wanna really quickly say thanks for all the lovely comments! I read them all but I'm too much of a wimp to respond to any of them, but thank you guys! 
> 
> And the POV changes to Shiro's for a bit, so that's there.

 

It’s been a couple weeks since what Keith calls, “The Bonding Moment™.” You wouldn’t believe the interrogation that Keith got from Keith afterwards from Shiro…

 

Actually nevermind, It wasn’t really an interrogation. What went down was just Shiro walking in on Keith eating dry cereal in the morning, asking where he got the sweater, then going to make himself some mac and cheese while saying “Swiggity swooty, here come that macarooni,” because he can only make children’s food despite his love of home cooked meals. And now he just proceeded to ask vague questions about it in the morning and when he gets home. Not an interrogation, but still annoying.

 

Halloween came and went. Nothing really special happened then, just Lance sending a picture of him and Hunk dressed up as teletubbies, with two mini power rangers, an inflatable dinosaur, a small witch, a zombie and a princess peeking in the corner, and a little Hulk who was falling asleep in Lance’s arms (which props on Lance for being able to snap a selfie with a sleeping baby in his arms.) It had the caption,  _ going trick or treating with the squad. _ The, “squad,” Keith later learned was Lance’s nieces and nephews who were also trick or treating with Hunk’s nieces who were the ones who couldn’t quite fit into Lance’s photo. It was pretty much the highlight of his night because it was gosh darn adorable. It also did help that the only other thing Keith did that night was sit on the couch, gorging himself with candy while Shiro handed out the children candy all night. Keith responded by just texting,  **Cute.**

 

They’ve actually been texting a lot these past weeks, which is new to Keith. Before Lance, Keith would only expect one or two texts from Shiro telling him to buy cat food or a meme he didn’t understand from either Pidge or Matt. Now he’s come to expect a plethora of new texts from Lance sending something like videos of his dog jumping into a pool and the aftermath of his dog jumping in said pool (which was really just Lance sending picture’s of his dog’s sad face with the caption,  _ we have to wait outside now because someone couldn’t help herself and has to dry off).  _ It was quite the change, he’s never been so worried about his phone dying randomly now. 

 

That didn’t mean it was an unwelcome change though. Keith’s come to enjoy the late night conversations they have about nothing and everything that can last till 1am. It was becoming a nice constant in Keith’s life, and if there’s one thing Keith enjoys it’s constants.

 

The current constant in Keith’s life is marathoning the Barbie movies with Shiro, and right now they’re watching Barbie and the Three musketeers.

 

“I mean, you’re not wrong that whenever the guy with the eyepatch blinks it’s technically a wink, but that doesn’t mean you have to say i-” Keith’s interrupted by a vibration from his phone.

 

“Oh ho ho, who’s texting you Keith?” Shiro said from where he was sitting upside-down on the couch, balancing Luna on his chest.

 

It was Lance. Shiro knew it was from Lance. He saw the gosh darn notification, Keith doesn’t get why he’s acting so coy about this. So Keith does the only thing he can do. He makes a fart noise and checks the text anyways (ignoring the fart noise Shiro makes in return).

 

_ (12:25) hey are you doing anything right now? _

 

**(12:25) Nothing but watching a Barbie movie**

 

_ (12:26) oh, which one? _

 

**(12:27) Three Musketeers**

 

_ (12:27) nice, that’s a good one _

_ (12:28) so uhm _

_ (12:30) i got a coupon for the ice skating rink _

_ (12:31) and i was wondering maybe if you’d like to go with me? _

_ (12:31) it’s just a suggestion you don’t have to _

_ (12:33) it would be nice though _

 

“Keith, you look like a tomato and I don’t think you’ve breathed for the past three minutes are you okay?” Shiro questioned as he repositioned himself right side up on the couch. And frankly Keith’s not okay, because that sounds date-like and Keith’s not sure if he was asked to a date or not but that sounds like a date and his face feels like it’s on fire and he is definitely not okay.

 

Keith takes a quick breath and then says while only slightly panicking, “Hey, Shiro, how can you tell when you’ve been invited to a date or not?”

 

“Heck, you think I know? Let me see the phone,” Shiro made grabby hands as Keith showed him the texts. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely a date.

 

“What should I do?!” Keith said as his panic increased.

 

“Well do you want to go?” Shiro said as he remained calm, if not slightly scared at his brother’s reaction.

 

“Yes!” 

 

“Then say yes.”

 

“Man that was a really simple solution, thanks Shiro,” Keith said as he started typing.

 

“How did you need my help for that?” Shiro asked as he looked over Keith’s shoulder as he typed.

 

“Shut up.”

 

**(12:38) Yeah, sure**

 

Shiro gave Keith a flat look, “How did it take you two minutes to type that?” 

 

“I said shut up, didn’t I?”

 

_ (12:39) sweet. _

 

\-----------------------------------

 

Lance showed up thirty minutes later, about when the movie ended. Keith was trying to pretend he wasn’t freaking out, but he was definitely freaking out, and Shiro could tell.

 

“Okay okay,” Shiro said as they heard the knock on the door, “Why don’t I answer it, while you get dressed.”

 

Keith groaned, “Okay fine, but don’t scare him by the time I get out,” he said as he started walking towards his room.

 

Shiro chuckled, “Yeah, yeah, sure.”  _ Don’t scare him off,  _ Shiro repeated mockingly in his head,  _ I’m the least threatening person I know… _

 

Shiro chuckled at that thought and opened the door. The boy who was standing in front of him was a only bit shorter than him so Shiro assumed he was kinda tall. He was wearing a dark green military jacket with yellow stripes on the arms and a gray undershirt. He also had a slightly confused expression on his face with a tinge of surprise.

 

“Oh, uh did I get the right apartment? I thought this was the right one,” The boy stammered as he looked to the apartment number and back at Shiro. 

 

Shiro chuckled a bit, he’s going to get way more amusement than he should out of this and that’s perfectly fine in his book. “No, you’re Lance right?” He nodded, “I’m Shiro, Keith’s brother.” He stuck out his right hand for Lance to shake. He hesitated a bit (not uncommon when you have a prosthetic hand) but then takes the offer. Shiro steps aside and let’s him in. “Keith’s just getting ready so it’ll only be a minute, we just finished Barbie and the Three Musketeers after all.”

 

“Okay, coolio dudeio,” Lance said as he gave awkward finger guns and sat on the couch. Red meowed and jumped off of where he was perched on top of the cat tree to go rub against Lance’s legs. Shiro felt slightly offended because this guy can just come in here once and have Red love him when Red’s known Shiro since they adopted him and he still hates him. Man that is a rude cat.

 

As Lance started petting the embodiment of rude called a cat, Shiro sat down on the arm chair next to the couch. Luna jumped onto his lap as he sat down, which he was kinda grateful for because now he felt more like one of those villain type people who stroke a cat menacingly as they speak.

 

“So, Lance,” as he spoke up Lance jumped and looked over to Shiro, “You know what a shovel talk is?”

 

Lance instantly looked horrified and man oh man how it filled Shiro with glee, “Oh, well sir there really is no need for that now is there really,” Lance said as he waved his arms frantically in the universal “no” gesture.

 

Shiro was full on grinning now, “Oh just call me Shiro, and we definitely need this,” Lance gulped, “Now, I’m going to keep this short since we only have about three minutes max. You seem like a good person, and I trust my brother’s decisions about 78%, which is a passing grade, so we technically don’t need this talk, but scaring you brings me joy,” Lance made a face at that, “Now just remember, if you hurt my brother in any way you are going to… regret…. It,” Shiro furrowed his brows as he lost this train of thought. He really should’ve thought this treat out more.

 

Lance laughed. It seems Shiro said that last thought out loud. Eh, he’s not good at giving out threats anyways.

 

“No, stop laughing, you’re supposed to be threatened,” Shiro said in his best disappointed dad voice. This seemed to calm down him down a bit. 

 

“I am feeling certainly threatened now, thanks Shiro.”  Lance’s laugh seemed a bit more nervous than genuine so Shiro thinks he might be getting through to him.

 

“Don’t patronize me, you pleb. If it hadn’t been for the laws of this land, I would’ve killed you.” Lance looked like he was about to start laughing again, but Shiro glared at him to show he meant business. That made him stop. “So, I think you get it, don’t you dare hurt Keith or else.” Shiro said in a monotone but firm voice.

 

Lance seemed a bit more scared this time, “You got it, man,” Lance said with a high pitched voice and uncofident voice.

 

“Good,” Shiro said going back to smiling, “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go eat an entire box of Candy Canes, good luck doing whatever.”

 

As Shiro got up, Keith entered the room wearing his red biker’s jacket, one of his numerous gray shirts and black jeans. Basically his normal clothing minus the fingerless gloves, which reminded Shiro that he needed to find his fingerless gloves. Well, glove, to be precise. 

 

Keith looked at Lance, who awkwardly waved and still had a slightly scared expression on his face, and instantly said, “Shiro what did you do?”

 

Shiro shrugged, “Just having a friendly conversation,” Shiro winked with both eyes. 

 

“You threatened him didn’t you?” Keith crossed his arms.

 

“Yeah.” Keith rolled his eyes and pulled Lance up by his arm, with a meow of protest from Red, and tugged him towards the front.

 

“See yah later, Shiro,” Keith said waving behind him. 

 

“Have fun, be back by whatever o’clock and all that,” Shiro waved back as Lance waved at both Shiro and Red as Keith shut the front door. 

 

“I’m all by myself, you know what that means guys?” Shiro said to the cats. Red meowed monotonely, “Red, no. Of course not get your mind out of the gutter.” Luna meowed afterwards, “Yes, Luna, you know me so well. We’re watching Barbie and eating all the whipped cream we got, let’s do this.” 

 

\-----------------

  
  


“I am so sorry for Shiro, Lance, he’s always wanted to give the ‘Shovel Talk™’” Keith said as Lance guided him to his car.

 

“Two things, did you just say ‘TM’ out loud?” Lance said as he reached a blue car and got into the driver’s seat.

 

“Yes.” Keith said as he got into the passenger's seat.

 

“That’s great,” Lance pulled out of the parking lot and got on the road, “And don’t worry about it. It wasn’t that bad, always could’ve been worse.”

 

“You sure?” Keith asked looking at Lance.

 

“Absolutely,” Lance said and threw a brilliant smile towards Keith that made his cheeks go a little warm.

 

“Okay fine.” Keith murmured.

 

The drive went relatively silent, the lack of voices being filled with a pop music station as Lance drove to their destination. Keith’s gotta thank Shiro a bit though. Without him doing… that, Keith would’ve been much more nervous to leave. Big surprise, this was actually Keith’s first “date.” Well he still doesn’t know whether or not this counts as a date or not. Now that he thinks about it this could qualify as a second date if that mall thing counts. Maybe even a third if his birthday counts.... This is his first date that Keith actually acknowledges as a maybe date before he was actually in the “date”. Dates are a good snack. Keith wants a date now. Multiple dates. Dates aren’t that big.

 

Off topic- point is, Keith’s nervous. When they left, they basically didn’t talk until Keith reached the parking lot and had to ask Lance where his car was. It also took way too long for Keith to realize how long he was holding onto Lance’s arm. It also took way too long to let go after that.

Honestly Keith liked being close to him, what can he say. 

 

“Hey, I meant to ask you this earlier,” Lance startled Keith out of his thoughts, “But have you ever been ice skating before?”

 

“No,” Keith felt his eyes go wide because he somehow just realized that he has no clue how to ice skate.

 

“Well I guess the old, Lancey Lance, ice skater extraordinaire is gonna have to show you the ropes,” Lance pulled into the ice rink’s parking lot and parked.

 

“5 bucks saying I’ll figure out how to do it myself,” Keith said, only slightly regretting it because he remembered what it’s like to rollerblade. 

 

Keith shivers. Never again.

 

“Make it ten and you got yourself a deal.” Lance said as they got out of the car.

 

“Deal,” Jokes on Lance, Keith doesn’t have ten dollars.

 

“Deal,” Jokes also on Keith because little does he know is that Lance also doesn’t have ten dollars. 

 

They shook on their agreement before they entered but forgot to let go of eachother’s hands, so they walked in while holding hands. As they walked in a wave of cold air hit them and Keith sort of regrets not wearing more warm clothing. 

 

“Do you want figure skates or hockey skates?” Lance asks after he pays the cashier.

 

He wants figure skates for undisclosed reasons but he really doesn’t know the difference so he asks what is such.

 

“Figure skates are just easier I think, right?” He asks the cashier to the side, who shrugs and says that she personally thinks so, “So yeah, we’ll have the figure skates.”

 

They give their shoe sizes and waltz over to the area where you put them on. When they go to sit down Keith realizes they’ve been holding hands this entire time, and one look at Lance tells him that he just realized it too.

 

They quickly let go, but not before blushing like idiots and getting to work on putting on their skates. Keith kind of misses the warmth of his hand since it’s freezing cold in here but that’s okay.

 

As they put on their skates and put their shoes in a locker, Keith finds it surprisingly easy to walk on them, unlike rollerblades. Those are evil concoctions from Satan himself. As he was about to step on the ice though, Keith found himself a bit apprehensive. There were about four people on the ice already and three of which looked like they got their shit together. The fourth one was just holding onto another person led them around.

 

Lance went onto the ice like it was nothing, “C'mon, Keith, I’ve got ten dollars to earn, or are you chickening out already?”

 

Oh that did it.

 

Keith took one step onto the ice and knew he made a mistake. It was much more slippery than he anticipated. He grabs onto the side wall and steadies himself. But he’s not giving up his non-existent ten dollars without a fight. Lance already looks close to bursting out in laughter. Keith glared at him and tried moving forward, and then proceeded flail around wildly and almost falls if it weren’t for the wall next to him.

 

Lance starts laughing and Keith glares at him, “Oh shut up, you dildo,” Keith said as he started pulling himself along the wall.

 

Lance followed along effortlessly, still giggling a bit (which was NOT CUTE and ANNOYING), “I’m sorry, did you just call me a dildo?”

 

“Yes, I use it as an insult,” Keith said as he tried to figure out how to move his legs without falling flat on his butt. 

 

“That’s great, I’m using that now.”

 

“Don’t steal my shit.” Keith figured slowly shuffling his legs along was a good idea.

 

“Hmm,” Lance hummed as he watched Keith do his shuffling thing, “Your legs are too stiff, you need to bend your knees.”

 

Keith scoffed, “And then what, die? I’m going to fall if I do that and you know it.”

 

“I won’t let you fall, now stop stealing my place as the over dramatic one,” Lance retaliated as he poked Keith in the side.

 

“Yeah, sure you ‘won’t let me fall,’ I’ll believe it when I see it,” Keith said as he tried being less tense.

 

“You look like a newborn fawn,” Lance said as he skated to Keith’s front.

 

“I feel like one too,” Keith grumbled as he watched Lance skate back and forth with envy. He was really just showing off now.

 

Keith really must have been a pathetic sight, because not even after two minutes Lance stopped skating around him and said, “Are you willing to let me help you now?”

 

“No, fuck off, I got it,” This was a lie.

 

“Common, Keith, you sure? I’m very willing to both help you and get 10 dollars.”

 

Keith glared at him and continued to try and shuffle along the wall, “I said I got this.”

 

“Well in that case,” Lance skated to the back of Keith and picked him up bridal style.  _ The mother fucker,  _ Keith thought as he yelped angrily.

 

“Hey! Put me down!” Keith struggled as Lance skated to the semi middle of the rink and did just that. Somehow the people around them just acted as if this was a normal occurrence.

 

“If you oh so got it down, Keithy boy, then prove it,” Lance said mockingly as he skated a bit away from him, “Skate towards me, oh master of the ice rink.”

 

Keith glared at him, “This is petty and you know it.”

 

“I am not above being petty and you should know this by now,” Lance said smugly as he crossed his arms.

 

Keith seemed to be in a predicament, and he can’t tell if it’s Lance’s fault, or his fault. He looked down at his feet and shuffled them back and forth a bit. That wasn't gonna get him anywhere. He tried very carefully raising his foot and taking a step forward.

 

Big mistake.

 

Keith realised he was slipping a second too late and flailed his arms franticly. Before he could fall though, he was suddenly pulled upright into a very warm, and may I say giggly, mass.

 

Keith’s face was tucked into Lance’s chest as he laughed into Keith’s hair. Needless to say, Keith was both a blushing mess, and extremely offended.

 

“I could punch your sternum you know,” Keith said as Lance’s giggle fest died down. 

 

“Yeah, you could, but how would you get off the ice then?” Lance said breathily.

 

Keith pouted. He had a point.

 

“And hey,” Lance continued in a softer tone, “I said I wouldn’t let you fall.”

 

Keith blushed at that and moved away from Lance, still holding onto his arm because he’s not a madman.

 

“Fine, show me your witchcraft,” Keith grumbled, with the flush still high on his cheeks. Maybe he could blame it on the cold.

 

Lance fist bumped the air, “Yes! Now we can be like that gay ice anime,” Lance said as he started to try and lead Keith around by his arm. It was kinda hard to do so since Keith was still very stiff.

 

Wait a minute. Gay ice anime? “...Yuri on Ice?” Keith questioned as he tried to relax his legs, which seemed to help a bit.

 

“Wait, you’ve watched it?” Lance said as he stopped skating around to look at Keith.

 

Yes. “No…” Keith said unconvincingly. 

 

“Keeeeeiiithh, you can be the Yuri to my Victor!” Lance said as he clapped his hands together excitedly.

 

“Why am I Yuri?” 

 

“Because you can’t skate yet and you’re a beautiful pork cutlet bowl. Now let’s teach you how to skate!” 

 

“Is the only reason you know how to skate Yuri on Ice, Lance?” Keith questioned flatly.

 

“... No comment.”

 

“You weeb.”

 

Lance stuck out his tongue and actually started to teach Keith how to skate. It was fairly easy once he got the hang of it. Granted he still ended up stiffing his legs here and there and almost ended up falling every once in awhile but he had the hang of it. Through trial and error, and laughter filled instructions on Lance’s part, he could skate from one end of the rink to the other without needing Lance’s help. When he did that the first time Lance picked him up and hugged the everliving daylights out of him. He didn’t really mind it seeing as Lance was so warm. 

 

Lance tried to see if Keith would be able to race him throughout the day. It didn’t really work seeing as Keith still sucked at ice skating, but that didn’t stop them from trying. It mostly ended up with Lance having to save Keith from falling or Keith hitting the wall of the rink because he didn’t really know how to stop at fast speeds.

 

By the end of the day, Keith couldn’t feel his fingers but could skate at a moderately fast speed without falling. It was actually pretty fun, not to mention he got to spend half of the day with Lance’s hand in his. 

 

When they left the ice rink it was slightly crowded and pretty late o’clock. All Keith could say was that he was pretty hungry. He was about to announce that when they got in the car, but his stomach seemed to want to do it for him as it grumbled rather loudly.

 

“Same,” Lance said as he poked Keith’s stomach.

 

“Hey!” Keith poked Lance right back in his stomach.

 

“Oof.” Lance poked Keith back and thus a poking war began.

 

It wasn’t the most ideal place to have a poking war, so it ended up being pretty short. The reason being because Keith accidently poked Lance in the eye.

 

“Fuck, sorry, are you okay?” Keith worried.

 

“No, you’ve blinded me Keith, I’ll never be able to see again. Tell Fairytopia I love her,” Lance said dramatically and pretended to be dead in the car seat.

 

Keith chuckled a bit and poked Lance’s side again, “Fairytopia?”

 

“That’s my dog’s name,” Lance said as he opened his supposedly blind eye to look at Keith.

 

“You seriously named your dog after a Barbie movie?”

 

“Hey hey hey,” Lance sat up straight and wagged his finger, “It was my niece's idea and I wasn’t about to tell her no, okay? Besides, Fairytopia is a bomb ass name.”

 

“Damn straight.”

 

“I don’t think anything about either of us is straight, bud,” Lance started up the car and began to drive. 

 

“... I can’t argue with that,” Keith said as he put on his seatbelt to be a safe person who always remembers to put their seatbelt.

 

“So, where we gonna eat?” Lance asked as he stopped at a stoplight.

 

“Oh, I have an idea.”

  
  


\--------------------------------------

  
  


They’re eating at Mcdonalds, with many complaints from Lance’s part.

 

When Keith told Lance that it was his favorite restaurant, whoo boy, he could still hear the shocked shriek of Lance saying after a second, “Mcdonalds is not a restaurant, Keith!” He ranted about such even until they pulled up to the parking lot. 

 

“And that concludes my rant.” Lance said as he got out and punctuated the end of his sentence with a door slam.

 

“That was a pretty worthless rant, seeing as this is still my favorite restaurant,” Keith shut his door and started walking with Lance to the Mcdonalds.

 

Lance folded his hands and breathed in loudly as they walked into the Mcdonalds, “Boi, fight me.”

 

Keith was about to say sure, but Lance interrupted him, “Actually don’t you’d cream me.”

 

“I mean, I’d say we’re like equally strong,” Keith made up a little chart in his head depicting their strength and it was equal to him.

 

There was one person in line and they got behind them, “Well sure, but didn’t you say you were in karate?”

 

“I only did that for a year and I only made it up to the green belt, I’m not that good Lance. Stop selling yourself short, you’re much better than you think,” Keith said that last part much softer than he meant to but he felt himself smile nevertheless. 

 

“Oh,” Lance said quietly as he returned a soft smile back at Keith. They stayed like that for a while until the cashier had to clear his throat to alert them that the person in front of them had already ordered and got their food. They blushed and moved forward to order their meals. Keith ordered a eight piece chicken nuggets and Lance ordered a big mac.

 

“For all the complaining you did I would’ve thought you’d order a salad,” Keith said as he picked up a tray and moved to a booth.

 

“I’m not a rabbit, Keith,” Lance said as he sat down in the booth across from Keith.

 

“I never said you were a rabbit,” Keith opened his box of nuggets and counted them, “Oh, hey they gave me an extra nugget,” Keith held it up to showcase it.

 

“Nice! Can I have it?” Lance moved his hand towards it as Keith moved it away.

 

“No, you have food.”

 

“Common, give me the nug,” Lance made grabby hands towards Keith.

 

“No, my nug,” Keith held it close to himself as Lance tried to reach across the table.

 

“Man this is unfair, Keith,” Lance said as he leaned back and took out his big mac.

 

“So is carrying me out to the middle of the rink when I don’t know how to ice skate, but life’s unfair, Lance, so deal with it.” Keith said as he dipped his nug into ranch sauce and ate it.

 

“Did I say I was sorry for that yet?” Lance questioned as he took a bite of his borger.

 

“No.”

 

“Then I’m sorry.”

 

“Apology not accepted,” Keith said and took a sip of his soda.

 

Lance made stuck his tongue out and threw a french fry at Keith. Luckily the french fry landed in his lap.

 

“Thanks,” Keith said as he ate it.

 

Lance huffed and took another bite of his borger while Keith ate the rest of his nugs. They ate in a comfortable silence, which Keith was grateful for. In the middle of eating Lance nudged his foot against Keith’s, which his only response was to nudge back harder, which continued on until they were having a full on foot war under the table. Like the poking war, it didn’t last very long because they accidentally kicked the table and almost spilled both of their drinks. After that they made a truce and shook with their legs instead of their hands because they were eating. Much like before they kind of forgot to untangle them.

 

When they finished they went to go throw out their food and passed by the PlayPlace.

 

“Keith,” Lance said as they walked by, “Do you dare me to go down the big slide,” Lance said as he pointed to said big slide.

 

“...No.” Keith looked at him like a crazy person.

 

Lance entered the PlayPlace, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re making me do this Keith.”

 

Keith followed him because what else is he supposed to do? “Lance, no, stop,” Keith watched as Lance took off his shoes and began to climb up those weird staircase ladder things.

 

“Keith, you’re wild, why would you dare me to do this you crazy lad,” Lance disappeared into the top entrance tube.

 

“Lance, what, no, did you just say lad? Jesus, get out from there!” Keith shouted as he heard the tell tale sound of someone going through the tubes.

 

“Keith, this dare, insane, crazy, nuts! I can’t believe you’r-,” there seemed to be some sort of distressed animal noise, “... uh oh.” the thumping in the tubes abruptly stopped and Keith got a little worried.

 

“Lance, you okay?” Keith yelled in the direction where Lance was.

 

Lance grunted as if he seemed to be struggling with something, “So, slight problem,” Lance started, which was not a good way to start anything, “You know those bungee net things that you walk across to get to the other side?”

 

“Uhm, yes, why?”

 

“My leg’s stuck.”

 

“...Seriously Lance?”

 

“Unfortunately.”

 

“Do you need assistance?” Keith didn’t want to go up in that dirty thing. He once witnessed a toddler have explosive diarrhea down the slide. Why that mother let her toddler with diarrhea into a McDonalds playground by themselves is still a mystery to Keith. But he would go up there to help Lance. He wouldn’t want his dead body ruining it for the kids like it was for Keith. 

 

“Uhm,” Lance grunted, “No, I,” another grunt, “Have the situation under-,” A louder more pronounced grunt followed by a disappointed sigh, “No control whatsoever, please help. I made it worse.”

 

Keith groaned and started climbing up the weird staircase ladder things, “Lance, this is pathetic,” He shouted up.

 

“Y-You’re Pathetic!” Lance shouted back.

 

“I’m not the one who got stuck in a McDonald’s playground!” Keith shouted back when he reached the top. He really wondered if the employees thought they were insane or not.

 

Keith waddled through the tubes until he reached Lance and then… instantly started laughing. It really was sad. He somehow got his leg tangled up in both the bottom net, and the wall net to the side, which had a whole in it. Keith didn’t know if it was already there or if Lance made it, all he knew was that he was crumpled up and laughing hysterically in a McDonalds playplace while Lance looked at Keith like he just insulted his pride. Like he had any to begin with, but Keith saw that he was holding back laughter too.

 

Keith calmed down after a solid 5 minutes. “Are you gonna help me now?” Lance tried to say grumpily but it was slightly ruined by the small giggles in his voice.

 

“Yeah, yeah, calm down you gopher,” Keith breathed out through the last of his laughter and started to help him.

 

“Is that another one of your insults?”

 

“Depends on the context.”

 

“Nice.”

 

Somehow it took 5 minutes to actually untangle Lance, which is actually quite impressive. Keith was about to turn around and go back down the staircase thing when he was stopped. 

 

“Oh no, no, no. We’ve worked too hard to go down the plebeian route, we’re going down the slide,” Lance, this time avoided the the bungee net and went the long way. Keith could’ve turned around and gone down the staircase thing, but he did kinda want to go down the slide so why not follow him.

 

“We?”

 

“Yes, we that was a team effort.”

 

“The most you did was wiggle your leg to see if it was loose or not.”

 

“Exactly, team effort.” Lance said as he got to the slide first.   
  


“It wouldn’t have to have been if you didn’t come up here in the first place,” Keith said as he reached the slide with him. 

 

“Keith, I don’t think you understand, which you should because you’re a year older than me, but this is all a part of adulthood.”

 

“I’m only nine months older than you.”

 

“And use that knowledge you’ve gained from the nine months I wasn’t born to suck it, Keith,” Lance laughed maniacally as he went down the slide.

 

Keith followed right after, making an offended noise before going down because, hey, rude. 

 

Apparently this wasn’t a very smart idea seeing as when Keith got to the bottom he fell into a very surprised Lance. 

 

They had fallen on top of each other like every cliche thing ever. Keith was splayed over Lance’s legs. As soon as Keith got his bearings after barrelling into a person, he looks up and his eyes meet Lance’s.

 

They blush and stay like that for a beat too long and get up, but are still standing pretty close. They didn’t have much of a height difference but this close Keith had to tilt his head up a bit to stare at Lance. Has his eyes always been so blue? And also why is he getting closer. Or is Keith moving closer? Does it matter?

 

They suddenly jumped apart at the sound of a door opening. Keith’s face was on fire, and a glance at Lance told him he wasn’t fairing much better. He looked at the door to see the employee from before with a broom and a slightly shocked expression.

 

“Oh my god,” said the slightly panicked employee, “Did I ruin a moment again? Man I got to stop doing that. Sorry! I’ll just be… uh, waiting outside,” with that he high-tailed it out of the room.

 

They stared at the doorway for about 10 seconds after he left before they burst out laughing. Honestly this whole situation was kind of ridiculous, and they both seemed to just realize it now.  

 

“Man,” Lance said as his laughter died down, “I think we should head back.”

 

Keith stopped laughing and was also grateful that Lance also decided to ignore what almost happened, “Yeah, we should.” Keith smiled at Lance and he smiled back. 

 

They stayed like that for probably much longer than the acceptable amount of time. They’re interrupted again by the employee coming back into the room, “Uh, are you guys done? Because, I kinda have to sweep.”

 

“Oh, right, sorry,” Lance took Keith’s hand and led him out of the room. As they left they put 10 dollars in the tip jar because they felt bad.

 

When they started heading home in the car, Keith actually thought about what was about to happen in the McDonalds, “Did we just almost have our first kiss in a McDonalds playground?”

 

Lance made a choked noise and swerved slightly on the road hearing that question. When Keith looked over to him, though it was dark, he could tell he was blushing heavily, “Well, first off,” Lance stated as he righted himself on the road, “yes, and secondly, how did you just say that so casually?”

 

“I’m getting tired,” Keith shrugged as he offered that explanation. When he’s tired he tends to have less of a filter.

 

“Well okay then. That’s… yeah- wow, we almost did, haha. That is… wow.”

 

Keith decided to stop talking after that because he’s pretty sure he broke Lance. They stay in comfortable silence (well at least Keith thinks it’s comfortable, Lance looks like he’s been contemplating life for the whole ride) until they get to Keith’s home. 

 

Lance parked and Keith just realized that this is probably the end of the date. Keith shouldn’t be as sad about it as he is. All great things must come to an end he guesses. Like this one time he was eating a really good burrito, but then an hour later his digestive system seemed to disagree entirely.

 

“So,” Lance said after putting his car in park, “I guess that’s the end of today.” Lance smiled as he looked over at Keith.

 

“Heh, yeah, I guess,” they stared at each other for a couple seconds until they realized that one of them probably should do something.

 

Apparently that something was Lance holding out his fist… Wait.

 

Was Lance offering Keith… a fistbump?

 

Keith bumped his fist against Lance’s and after that he seemed to come to his senses.

 

“Wait, no,” Lance said as he pulled his fist away and looked at it, “That is not what I was supposed to do.”

 

Keith chuckled and leaned over to kiss Lance’s cheek, “Thanks for today, you dork. I had fun.”

 

Lance chuckled right back and took Keith’s hand and kissed it, “So did I,” he said and flashed Keith a brilliant smile.

 

Keith smiled back and figured he should probably leave now. He got out the car and waved at Lance, who waved back. He watched the car leave and went to his apartment to see Shiro surrounded by at least 5 cans of whipped cream while watching Paw Patrol and downing a 6th can while petting Luna. Pretty much a normal weekend for Shiro.

 

Shiro noticed him and finished eating the whipped cream in his mouth, “Keith, we’re almost out of whipped cream.”

 

“Is this all you’ve been eating the whole day?”

 

“Yes,” Shiro finished the can of whipped cream and threw it to the side, “How was your date?”

 

Keith smiled, “It was great.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Call out to the Barbie movies real quick because those are some good shit.


	7. Finale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith just, chillin with their shit together, cause they deserve it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yall, Been like over a year since I even looked at this thing and Voltron’s over now! Yay! I started hating the show some way between the midpoint of season 4 and 5 so that’s good. Anyway now that it’s over I’m finishing this fic. Sorry if you just read through the whole thing of horribleness just to get to whatever lackluster end I’m writing up now (I haven’t finished it so the end is still a mystery). So enjoy! Or don’t! You do you! Happy Holidays or whatever!
> 
> Also I realized there’s a scene in the last chapter where they shake hands and then forget to let go??? I guess I just forgot you shake with opposite hands and now that scene is actually hilarious to me and I can’t get over it. Okay go on to the fic now bye.

_(1:53) did you know that the average human body grows 138 feet of hair per day?_

**(1:54) Do you know how willing I am to come over to your house and kick your shins?**

 

They’ve been going at this for about four hours now. Lance sending Keith weird facts and Keith wondering about his sanity.

It’s two am and Lance has been spewing these out since eleven. Keith has never been so enlightened. He did not, however, need to know about so many animal penises, but that was still interesting nevertheless (It did make him question if Lance was a furry or not but Keith couldn’t decide if that was a dealbreaker).

It’s been about a couple of months since their Mcdonalds/Ice skating date.

They still haven’t kissed.

It’s not particularly their fault, it’s just happenstance.

Yeah, they’ve been on a couple of dates since then, and no they did not all end at Mcdonalds. Only some.

Their dates mostly consisted of them either hanging out at lunch or going out to whatever they had coupons for.

It was nice to hang out with someone other than Shiro, Matt, and Pidge. No shade to them, they’re still great, but now he had a friend he made by himself so suck on that losers.

Though one day Lance decided to bring his friends along and that was great, he loves Hunk! But the only thing that really Jennaed his marbles was…

“Lance why do you know the Gremlin Lord?” Keith said looking at said Gremlin.

“Oh man you know Pidge too?” Lance said, gesturing to the Lord.

“Okay how dare both of you,” Pidge walked over to a rock to stand on it and achieve maximum height during this ordeal, “If I am anything to the Gremlins I am their god. Also I’ve been secretly collecting dirt on both of you throughout this whole schtick, so now I’ve decided to show my cards or however the saying goes.” She did a dramatic bow while Hunk clapped for her.

“She really does have a lot of dirt,” Hunk helped her down from the rock cause he was a saint, “I sent her the screenshots of Lance fawning over you after every date,” He was talking to Keith by the end of that sentence while Lance made an indignant noise.

“I sent you those messages, trusting you’d keep them safe, and you betrayed me.”

“Lance, I told you after the third date if you keep texting me with this I was sending it to Pidge for her blackmail vault.”

“Oh yeah, you did.”

That was a fun day, they all just hung out in the festival together and had a heckin blast. Pidge even pushed Lance into the water in the boat ride! They got kicked out after that…

 

Anyway, Keith really liked Lance. He’s mostly sure Lance likes him too cause he’s not an idiot.

 

_(2:03) did u know that butterflies can be cannibals?_

**(2:03) I hope they eat you.**

 

Eventually they both fell asleep… at four am. The conversation eventually derailed from weird facts to something about pineapples, Keith doesn’t remember. Though Keith does wake up to the sound of Red crying. She can see the bottom of her food bowl and wishes for it to be refilled. And of course her wish is Keith’s command so he does did do that.

Keith’s tired.

He settles down on the couch and turns on the TV. It’s playing Disney Jr. and he’s too lazy to change it so he decides this is his life now. Watching Sofia the first after waking up at 1pm. He’s lucky he doesn’t have work today so he can just go off I guess. He pulls a Shiro and just eats a whole pie for breakfast? Lunch? Wake up meal?

So that’s where he’s at when he gets a text.

He checks it to see if it’s Shiro still “informing” him that _someone_ should take out the trash, and that _someone_ should’ve done it _three days ago._ Keith just responds with an oof cause, man, whoever that is really should get on that.

Turns out it’s from Lance though.

_(2:33) yo can I come over? i got cake and non alcoholic beverage that we have left over from my brother’s birthday that my mom’s forcing me to get rid of_

He’s gonna have to take out the trash isn’t he?

**(2:35) Yeah, sure**

_(2:36) neat_

Keith groans as dramatically as he can and rolls off the couch to take out said trash. It’s almost Christmas, why should he have to do this? He’s disrupted Red’s slumber from where she was resting on his feet. Great, now she’s glaring at him, of course.

Keith takes out the trash and waits, he cleaned up a bit too. The TV’s still playing Sofia the First though. He’s pretty invested in the story at this point.

It’s about thirty minutes later when Keith hears a knock at the door. He opens it without checking, “I am way too invested in a kid’s show and I think it’s a problem, come on in,” He let’s Lance inside.

“What else is new, huh?” Lance chuckles as he goes into the apartment, “Hey Red!” Red looks up at him from her perch on the back of the couch and meows happily like the traitor she is. Lance hasn’t been back at his apartment since his birthday and Keith can’t believe she still remembers him.

“Hey wait, where’s that other cat? Luna?” Lance asks after he set down the cake and Capri Suns™ to pat Red’s head.

“Oh yeah, Shiro took her cause he’s staying the night at his fiancé’s,” Keith locked the door and walked over to stand next to Lance.

“Shiro has a fiancé?” Lance jumped over the couch to settle on it and Red crawled onto his lap while he stroked her fur.

“Yeah he never talks about Adam, but when he does, let me tell yah,” Keith also vaults over the couch and settles next to Lance, “Total barf fest. He will not stop talking about him for hours. He gushes over everything that man does.”

“Oh yeah, gross, wouldn’t know what that’s like.”

“Lance, You do know that Hunk sent me a bunch of screenshots of you doing the exact same thing over text. He even told me he got your permission for that,” He remembers getting those and boy howdy, he was long gone. He got those at work and had to go freak out in the bathroom for a solid five minutes.

In his defense they were very, very sweet. He also may have saved them in a folder on his phone titled “Lance things” which may or may not just be filled with cute thing Lance has done.

It was a big file.

“Hunk’s just here for the drama of it all and that’s all I got to say,” Lance looks up at the TV for the first time, “Are you watching Sofia the First?”

“Hey the plot’s actually okay.”

“No, no, no, We’re watching something else,” Lance takes the remote and flips the chanels and Keith is vaguely offended. He wanted to see how the episode ends.

He eventually lands on some sort of garbage christmas movie. It was like a Hallmark movie... but worse.

Halfway through making fun of the movie (“Missghetti?? Missghetti, Keith.” “What? She misses it.”)  they bring out the quarter of a cake and Capri Suns. They eat it out of the box with forks because they’re animals, but they don’t want to get their hands dirty.

Keith tried the cake and it was delicious, he said so to Lance.

“Oh thanks, I made it,” Keith started choking on his juice.

“You can cook!?” He asked cause this cake tasted like it was cooked with God’s given grace laid over it, or some better analogy, “This is the actual best cake I’ve ever tried!”

Lance blushed, “Thanks, but I can’t cook, I can only bake,” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“I can’t do either so as far as I know you are a baking god,” Keith poked Lance’s chest and took another bite of the blessed cake.

Lance chuckled, “Thanks boo,” He said as he poked Keith back. Keith didn’t feel like starting a poking war so he just side eyed him and let him win… this time.

They continued watching the movie to the end, which was something.

“Hold up if that lady was Santa’s daughter, than that means that Mr. and Mrs. Claus…”

“Yeah, they sure did Lance.”

“Don’t like that.”

“No one does,” Keith had laid his head on Lance’s shoulder some point in the movie and he was too lazy to do anything about that. They’d finished all the cake and left 3 Capri Suns for later.

The end credits of the movie had ended and the TV was playing commercials now. Keith was probably going into a food coma by now because he was suddenly extremely tired. It makes sense, seeing how he’d just eaten an entire pie before Lance came.

He was almost asleep when Lance took his hand.

“Hey Keith,” Lance said as he nudged Keith on his shoulder.

“Hmm?”

“We’re dating right?”

“We sure are, dummy,” Keith squeezed his hand and looked up to see Lance already looking back at him.

“So it’s fine if I kiss you right?” Keith felt his face warm. Lance had a tiny smile on his face as he brought his other hand up to Keith’s cheek.

Keith nodded.

The kiss was chaste. Short and sweet, but it still made Keith’s heart beat five times faster.

They broke apart because both of them were smiling too much for it to be an actual kiss at that point.

Laughing a bit, Lance put on a dramatic false bravado, “So, how was that?”

Keith laughed right back at him, “Could be better,” he shrugs.

“Wanna test that theory out?”

And you know what, Keith did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s it! Whoo!! I can put this to rest at last! Like I said, kinda lackluster for a year in the making if I’m pretending I didn’t write this thing in one day. But yeah, It was fun, first multi-chaptered semi serious fic. I’m not doing this again! Or maybe I will it was kinda fun! Who knows what me in the future will do! I don’t know them!
> 
> Anyway I finished it. Oh my gosh I finished it, It’s a christmas miracle. Sorry if you had to read through my garbage writing if you just found this. And if you read this when it first came out and you’re here now, thanks for sticking with this I guess. Anyway, time to say goodbye to this fic and fandom for good. I’m free. Even though I haven’t watched anything since season 4 I’m free from this hell.
> 
> K thanks for reading, one last time. Bye!
> 
> (Also, if you read the alternate ending I’m so so sorry)


	8. BONUS CHAPTER (alternate ending)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry, I didn't need to post this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got bored while writing the actual ending of the fic and I wrote this and I’m so sorry, there is no excuse.
> 
> It’s the same thing as the last chapter up until Keith checks the door sooo… sorry?

_ (1:53) did you know that the average human body grows 138 feet of hair per day? _

**(1:54) Do you know how willing I am to come over to your house and kick your shins?**

 

They’ve been going at this for about four hours now. Lance sending Keith weird facts and Keith wondering about his sanity. 

It’s two am and Lance has been spewing these out since eleven. Keith has never been so enlightened. He did not, however, need to know about so many animal penises, but that was still interesting nevertheless (It did make him question if Lance was a furry or not but Keith couldn’t decide if that was a dealbreaker).

It’s been about a couple of months since their Mcdonalds/Ice skating date. 

They still haven’t kissed. 

It’s not particularly their fault, it’s just happenstance.

Yeah, they’ve been on a couple of dates since then, and no they did not all end at Mcdonalds. Only some. 

Their dates mostly consisted of them either hanging out at lunch or going out to whatever they had coupons for. 

It was nice to hang out with someone other than Shiro, Matt, and Pidge. No shade to them, they’re still great, but now he had a friend he made by himself so suck on that losers.

Though one day Lance decided to bring his friends along and that was great, he loves Hunk! But the only thing that really Jennaed his marbles was…

“Lance why do you know the Gremlin Lord?” Keith said looking at said Gremlin.

“Oh man you know Pidge too?” Lance said, gesturing to the Lord.

“Okay how dare both of you,” Pidge walked over to a rock to stand on it and achieve maximum height during this ordeal, “If I am anything to the Gremlins I am their god. Also I’ve been secretly collecting dirt on both of you throughout this whole schtick, so now I’ve decided to show my cards or however the saying goes.” She did a dramatic bow while Hunk clapped for her. 

“She really does have a lot of dirt,” Hunk helped her down from the rock cause he was a saint, “I sent her the screenshots of Lance fawning over you after every date,” He was talking to Keith by the end of that sentence while Lance made an indignant noise.

“I sent you those messages, trusting you’d keep them safe, and you betrayed me.”

“Lance, I told you after the third date if you keep texting me with this I was sending it to Pidge for her blackmail vault.”

“Oh yeah, you did.”

That was a fun day, they all just hung out in the festival together and had a heckin blast. Pidge even pushed Lance into the water in the boat ride! They got kicked out after that…

 

Anyway, Keith really liked Lance. He’s mostly sure Lance likes him too cause he’s not an idiot.

 

_ (2:03) did u know that butterflies can be cannibals? _

**(2:03) I hope they eat you.**

 

Eventually they both fell asleep… at four am. The conversation eventually derailed from weird facts to something about pineapples, Keith doesn’t remember. Though Keith does wake up to the sound of Red crying. She can see the bottom of her food bowl and wishes for it to be refilled. And of course her wish is Keith’s command so her does did do that. 

Keith’s tired.

He settles down on the couch and turns on the TV. It’s playing Disney Jr. and he’s too lazy to change it so he decides this is his life now. Watching Sofia the first after waking up at 1pm. He’s lucky he doesn’t have work today so he can just go off I guess. He pulls a Shiro and just eats a whole pie for breakfast? Lunch? Wake up meal?

So that’s where he’s at when he gets a text. 

He checks it to see if it’s Shiro still “informing” him that  _ someone _ should take out the trash, and that  _ someone _ should’ve done it  _ three days ago. _ Keith just responds with an oof cause, man, whoever that is really should get on that.

Turns out it’s from Lance though.

_ (2:33) yo can I come over? i got cake and non alcoholic beverage that we have left over from my brother’s birthday that my mom’s forcing me to get rid of _

He’s gonna have to take out the trash isn’t he?

**(2:35) Yeah, sure**

_ (2:36) neat _

Keith groans as dramatically as he can and rolls off the couch to take out said trash. It’s almost Christmas, why should he have to do this? He’s disrupted Red’s slumber from where she was resting on his feet. Great, now she’s glaring at him, of heckin course.

Keith takes out the trash and waits, he cleaned up a bit too. The TV’s still playing Sofia the First though. He’s pretty invested in the story at this point. 

It’s about thirty minutes later when Keith hears a knock at the door. He opens it without checking, “I am way too invested in a kid’s show and I think it’s a problem, wait, who’re you?”

 

Keith looks at the majestic looking lady standing in front of him. She’s 7 feet tall, green, and weilding a sword.

“Mr. Keith, I have come to inform you about Lance” She says and Keith can’t help but think she looks like Fiona from Shrek, “He is in great danger, and he needs your help! All he needs is your credit card number, the expiration date, and those three funky numbers on the back! And you better hurry! We need to save him from the wretched claws of my husband before it’s too late!”

Keith was more than shook, he was shaken. What ever could have happened to Lance? He must be terrified. 

As quickly as he could he tore out his credit card info, gave it all to Fiona, as she thanked him for his bravery. She ran off, singing the beginning of Hooked on a Feeling, and left the building. Seconds later a blinding light appeared in front of Keith. It was, the one and only, Berry B. Benson. 

“You’ve done it Keith,” His voice was echoing throughout the whole building, “You saved me.”

Keith was confused.

“I know you’re confused,” Said the glowing bee, “But this is my true form,” He flew closer to his face, holding it with his bee hands, “This is who I am. I am Lance.”

“H.. How?” Keith couldn’t look away from this exquisite bee form. He was so gorgeous, so lovely.

“Why, I’ve always been this way, why do you think I made you watch the bee movie last time I was here, or why so many of my facts last night were bug related? It’s always been me Keith, and now I’m here with my true form, do you accept me for the way I am?” Lance’s bee eyes were staring right into Keith’s, mesmerizing, enchanting.

“Yes… Yes I do,” His voice cracked at the end of the sentence, filled with emotion. He couldn’t have gotten more lucky, to have this beauty as his boyfriend.

Bee lips touched his in a tender kiss. They stayed like that for however long tender kisses last. 

They broke apart, breathless, “I love you, Keith,” Lance said with a voice full of adoration.

 

“I love you, too”

 

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading? Bye fandom I guess.

**Author's Note:**

> uuuuhhh thanks


End file.
